Shugah, a completely healthy and fully vetted hound (shown here) was entrusted to the care of an animal rescuer in Mississippi as a foster dog for a humane society based in Louisiana. After receiving multiple concerns and complaints about conditions of animals at the Carriere, Mississippi rescuer's home, the Louisiana humane society director decided that she needed to make the 150 mile trek to visit with the rescuer. The humane society director felt that the society needed to re-take custody of the five dogs and horse that the rescuer was fostering for them because the conditions at the rescuer's home had deteriorated to the point of being described as "extremely deplorable". The director also noted that many of the now hundreds of animals residing on the property were in poor condition. After many unsuccessful attempts to persuade the rescuer to allow the society to take their animals back to Louisiana, the humane society asked local authorities to intervene. It was at this point when this humane society dog, Shugah, was abandoned by the Carriere,Mississippi rescuer at a veterinary hospital with massive tissue growth around her neck and shoulders. It is presumed that since the dog had minor surgery seven months prior for a snake bite, that the rescuer who was fostering her had forced her to wear an Elizabethan collar around her neck for several months. (For those who do not know what it is, an Elizabethan collar is a temporary solution to prevent an animal from scratching their HEAD; a cone shaped piece of plastic that surrounds the animal's neck and flutes out towards the nose area.) The dog's minor surgery seven months prior was to the dog's shoulder, so wearing the collar was unwarranted. The pathology report reveals that the "tissue growth was caused by self trauma"; evidently the dog had been scratching at the E-collar for an extended period of time. The rescuer either didn't notice the severe injury and distress of the dog or didn't care. When asked why she hadn't taken the dog back to the vet where she had an open account for the humane society, the rescuer replied, "I didn't have time; I was giving her holistic treatment myself though". This is one of hundreds of "rescues gone bad". Often times a rescuer becomes over-whelmed and takes on many more animals than they can physically or psychologically care for. Many, but not all, of these people operate in rural areas and obtain their animals from long distance sources in order to keep their animal collecting-hoarding a secret. These collectors become so engrossed in saving animals from the animal impound that they are oblivious to the suffering of the animals at their home that they've already "saved". |