Local animal organizations try to nurse abandoned puppies back to health
Trending
There are plenty of ill feelings Amy Perez, a board member for The Road Home Animal Project, has after her organization needed to help care for seven Aussie mix puppies left in an abandoned Bellaire house. She’s infuriated, angry, heartbroken, disgusted, hurt and confused, among others.
“There’s just no need for it,” Perez said of the puppies’ predicament.
Yet through those negative emotions, there are positive ones, too, mainly from watching volunteers, veterinarians and others come together to try and save those tiny dogs.
The seven puppies, Perez said, were left in a tote in the abandoned house. The person who found them Thursday afternoon took them to the animal shelter and then to New Horizon Animal Hospital. The puppies, thought to be about four weeks old, were in very bad shape.
They were covered in vomit, urine and feces. Some were covered in maggots. They suffered from urine scald, a painful skin inflammation caused by prolonged exposure to urine and ammonia.
“They were chewing each other’s tails,” Perez said. “They don’t even look like tails anymore. They’re down to the nerves and skin.”
Unfortunately, two of the puppies didn’t make it through the night, dying from their condition. The other five, Perez said, are on the mend. Some are able to eat on their own, while others still need to be hand fed, but all five surviving pups are eating.
What angers Perez the most is that this situation didn’t need to happen.
“There are resources available,” she said. “That just doesn’t have to be an option to dump dogs like that anymore. There are so many resources out there that can help.”
Among them is The Road Home Animal Project, a nonprofit 100% volunteer organization that helps rehabilitate and rehome abandoned animals. Local animal shelters also can help.
Those organization quickly rally to help animals in need, which Perez said she saw with these puppies and The Road Home.
“Everybody stepped into action,” she said. “One board member said they could take some of them. We had fosters stepping up. All of this could have been avoided.”
Perez said the public can help by donating to help care for the puppies. A donation link can be found on The Road Home Animal Project’s Facebook page.
Perez said locals have given the organization information as to who might have owned the dogs, and that information has been turned over to law enforcement for investigation.
Meanwhile, the organization will try to keep nursing the surviving puppies back to health.
“As much evil as there is in the world, in those moments, you see how much good there is, too,” Perez said. “Everybody is bound and determined to try and save these babies.”