Break-ups can be though and it’s understandable if you want to punish the other party somehow. But when you choose to do that through torturing an innocent animal, you’ve crossed not one, but several lines. That’s what happened when a woman intentionally starved her dog. Or, more accurately – her ex-boyfriend’s former dog that he had left in her care.
The woman is currently being charged after the dog was found “close to death”.
The dog’s rescuers said that they found the starved rottweiler-mastiff cross in a lethargic state, tied in a yard in South Carolina.
“He is weak with very pale gums, and he was covered in maggots, even in his mouth!” Rescue Dogs Rock NYC wrote on Facebook.
“This is animal abuse!”
The rescuers believe that the woman had been starving the dog for over a month. Now renamed to Champ, the dog had apparently survived by desperately gnawing on anything within his leash’s reach.
A passer-by spotted Champ tied up on the 16th of August. Fortunately, the Good Samaritan alerted the authorities immediately. We shudder at the thought of how many people had seen Champ before that and did nothing.
The vet they took Champ to determined that the dog is a 16-month-old dog. At that age, a Rottweiler-mastiff cross should weigh around 50 kilograms (110 pounds). Instead, Champ was less than half of that – 23 kg (50 pounds).
The vet and rescuers are currently giving Champ the best possible care.
They are feeding him, caring for his needs, and giving him all the medical assistance he needs. As a result, Champ is getting better, but he’s still in a critical condition.
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Elizabeth Lena James, 30 years-old, took over the duties of caring for the dog six months ago. That’s when her ex-boyfriend and she broke up. The woman intentionally starved her dog for just the last one of those six months, but no one knows how poorly she took care of him even before that.
“She intentionally did not feed this dog,” Captain Chris Martin said about the case.
“This dog was on her property. She sees the dog every day and sees his conditions are worse.”
James is facing court next month for “ill-treatment of animals”.
