Some People Will Abuse Animals.

This is not a happy column. Neither of these stories has a happy ending. But the people who do these things need to know they may be found out.

An anonymous Good Samaritan knew some details of this story and sent it to me. We think that the dog, a black and white Border Collie, was riding in the back of a pickup, tied with a chain, fell out, and was dragged a along the pavement. It's the most likely explanation for what we do know.

He came crawling up the driveway of a house near Potlatch Idaho and the people there were kind enough to take him to a veterinary hospital in Moscow, Idaho. Dr. Lisa Winters, at The Animal Clinic and Hospital was on duty. She told me the dog had a very large patch of “road rash” on his belly. The skin was blackened and oozing pus. He had a large laceration and more road rash on the knee on each hind leg, and the outside toes on each hind foot had been ground away leaving only raw flesh and jagged pieces of bone. She said the dog was in shock, severely anemic from blood loss, and she estimated the injuries had happened a day or two earlier. She treated him for shock and sent him to the WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Dr. Mordecai was on duty. He said the dog was suffering from severe toxic shock, a massive infection, plus the pain of the injuries. In spite of intensive care by Dr. Mordecai and his trauma team, the dog died.

The second story began with an emergency call of mine. Someone had called the police department to report that a badly injured stray dog was their back yard. One of the people had sustained a serious bite wound trying to capture the dog and they'd left for the hospital by the time I arrived. The officers were faced with a large, aggressive pit bull, dragging himself around the yard and far too aggressive to transport to my clinic.

We could see the dog had a broken back. While I prepared a couple of injections, the officers carefully put the steel cable noose of a capture pole around the dog’s neck. They restrained him while I first injected a strong sedative in the muscle of a hind leg. In a few minutes he was quiet and I could safely give the shot for euthanasia, which had to go in a vein.

Because the dog had bitten someone, and there was a risk of rabies, we had to take the body to my clinic where I cut the head off so it could be sent to the state lab for testing. Later, the officers found out that the people who had made the original call actually were the owners of the dog.

Apparently, the dog broke his chain, had been running loose and was hit by a car. In spite of his broken back he was able to drag himself home. Rather than pay a veterinary bill his owners called the police and said the dog was a stray, so the city would take care of their dog and pay the bill.

At least they were found out and I can’t say I feel too sorry about one of them suffering a dog bite. And I hope that they and the owner of the Border Collie in the first story will read this article. I don’t know what consequences the Pit Bull owners will face, but the owner of the Border Collie is under investigation by state authorities