The dog called Rodney was left with bones protruding. He was emaciated and he had sores on his legs caused by laying down in a damp kennel.
The dog was neglected and left in a damp and filthy kennel and was so starved he’d tried to eat his tail.
The lurcher cross was found in the back garden of a house in Huyton, Merseyside after an estate agent went to the property to carry out an eviction.
The dog was discovered locked up and freezing in a soaking wet kennel and he was so neglected he’d chewed part of his tail and the estate agent reported the matter to the RSPCA.
RSPCA animal rescuer Inspector Pamela Bird was sent to investigate and took the dog to the RSPCA’s Greater Manchester Animal Hospital.
His bones were protruding and he was emaciated and his tail had also been left severely damaged as a result of him chewing it. He also had sores on his legs caused by laying down in the wet kennel.
It was discovered that Rodney had been left in the kennel alone for at least three weeks, with visits from his owner to feed him taking place only every few days.
The dogs tail was so damaged it had to be removed halfway, but despite all he’s been through he still has the capacity to wag it.
Now he does so at almost every opportunity while in the care of the RSPCA’s Warrington, Halton and St Helen’s branch where he’s been nursed back to full health.
Staff at the branch are now wanting to find a forever home for adorable Rodney, aged 3, who it’s believed has never lived in a home.
Alana Bibby, welfare team leader at the branch said that Rodney is such a jolly and happy chap and you wouldn’t know he’d had such a bad start in life.
She said that he’s come on great in their care and that he loves people and he leaps up as if to say ‘hug me’ at most opportunities and she said that he was so stressed with being left on his own for such long periods, without any interaction that he chewed his tail and had to have it amputated halfway up, so now he has half a tail but still enthusiastically wags it.
Words fail me because the law isn’t stringent enough for this and it needs to be reviewed with more effective punishments because no living creature deserves to be treated like this, and if they treated an animal in this way, God knows how they would treat their children.
And it says a lot about a person when they willingly abuse something that can’t speak or fight back, and hopefully, the RSPCA will pursue this, but as we all know, animal abusers in this country get punishment equivalent to ten minutes in the naughty corner.
