An animal charity has been left brokenhearted after a mother dog and her newborn puppies were cruelly abandoned in the rain.
The West Cork Animal Welfare Group (WCAWG), based in Ireland, was called to help a German shepherd cross and her seven three-week-old puppies.
She had been found tied to a gate with her puppies beside her, with no shelter or food. The mother dog was unable to reach her puppies she was tied up so tightly.
In the U.S., approximately 6.3 million animals find themselves in shelters each year, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
Of these, around 810,000 strays are returned to their owners, and 4.1 million are adopted each year.
A photo of the abandoned mom and her babies garnered thousands of likes after being shared to Facebook on April 27.
West Cork Animal Welfare Group Ltd
The post, which you can see here, showed the animals abandoned on a country road, the mother tied to a gate and the puppies curled up for warmth, all of them drenched wet and freezing cold.
The mother, who has now been given the name Zelda, had tried to jump through the gate to reach her puppies, and had become tangled up in the process.
Shelter volunteer and WCAWG fundraiser Tory Joyce told Newsweek: “You can see from the photo, she’s jumped. If she had jumped even once more she could have hung herself.”
“The puppies couldn’t get to her for food, they couldn’t get to her for shelter. They were there for hours. They were freezing cold and shivering, they probably weren’t going to live much longer,” she said.
A young man found the abandoned animals and immediately contacted the WCAWG. A volunteer took them into her home, where the puppies are now being fed around the clock with puppy milk, and Zelda is being slowly nursed back to health.
“She’s skin and bone,” Joyce said. “Some of her hair is missing, she has mange as well.
“This dog has been starved, not just yesterday or today, this would have been going back possibly years. She’s been systematically starved.”
Shannon Mulqueen/Blue Raven Photography
Zelda is also now unable to care for her puppies, as due to the malnutrition and stress, she “can’t cope” and “her milk is gone.”
“She goes for a little sniff of them every once in a while, but it’s very cruel. We now have to do everything a mother would do for them.”
“The dog was let down on every single level,” Joyce went on, but the mother and puppies now have a brighter future ahead of them.
“She’s getting such good care. People from all over the world have donated food and donated towards her care. We’d like to thank everybody, it’s been incredible,” Joyce said.
Despite everything she’s been through, Zelda is proving to be a “very sweet dog,” and once she’s fully rehabilitated and trained, she will be put up for adoption by the charity, as will her pups.
“She’s safe, she’s in a wonderful place,” Joyce said. “They’ll only see good from now on.”
West Cork Animal Welfare Group Ltd.
Zelda’s story had traveled across the world, from the small corner of Ireland to the U.K., U.S., Australia and beyond, Joyce said.
Commenters on her rescue post were horrified at seeing the animals so cruelly mistreated, with one saying humans “really are the most dangerous species on the planet”.
“I wish there was a law where people had to pass strict tests in order to own an animal and could only adopt, no buying animals,” another wrote.
“Oh my god the sad eyes on the poor darling,” one Facebook user said.
And as one person put it: “Karma will get those responsible for this cruelty.”
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to [email protected] with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
