Sad thing to see at my animal shelter..

lil_axl_gurl

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Well this weekend I took the time to volunteer at my animal shelter. After three hours of playing with the cats I decided it was time to get ready to go since my mom would be picking me up soon. On my way to go sign out I heard a dog barking behind the front desk. When I looked over to see what kind of dog it was..I saw a weimar and that dog was SO skinny I could see his backbone, his hips, and his ribs!! I was in SHOCK!!!!!! I was also talking with one of the workers and I made the comment, "I can't believe how skinny that dog is!!" and she told me that she had seen worse then that!!! I then asked if animal control had brought him in and she said "No the owner came in and surrendered it!" I certainly hope they took action on this one!!! I'm still in tears and this happened 2 days ago!!
 

evnshawn

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That's really sad. Weimaraners are awesome dogs, too. (Not that any animal deserves to be mistreated.) Some people just shouldn't have pets.
 

zoe'n'misskitty

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That poor dog....
I hope he gets adopted to a loving home...it would be very sad if he had to suffer through a neglectful owner and then live his last days at the shelter, no matter how loving the shelter workers are.
It's terrible to see animals in that bad condition.

Cheers to you for volunteering there.
 

navdoc

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Please accept his advise for someone who worked in a shelter for 4 years. Do not take things personally. Yes, seeing an animal in that condition can get to you, but you must try to see the good. The owner surrendered the dog vice letting it die. If the dog arrived dead, then say to yourself that the dog is in a better place now and is no longer suffering. At least now, the dog has a chance to recover and get adopted into a good home. There will be things that are hard to see and hear there, but the shelter needs your help. I will not list the bad things that I have seen, but there are just as many or more good things that happen there. I really enjoyed working at the shelter part-time during my last years in the Navy. I had a full time job waiting for me there, however, the cost of housing and cost of living in southern California was crazy. Had to move east. If you want to discuss more in the future, please do not hesitate to PM me.
 

abbeycat

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Thats pretty typical condition of dogs that are starved.. I have pics of some badly starved ones, but i'v seen literal walking skeletons I couldn't take pics of apart from using to make a case.
but they cant prosecute unless the dog puts on weight..
they have to wait till it puts on weight because that proves it was simply lack of food and not an underlying medical condition which caused the weight loss.
 

evnshawn

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Originally Posted by AbbeyCat

Thats pretty typical condition of dogs that are starved.. I have pics of some badly starved ones, but i'v seen literal walking skeletons I couldn't take pics of apart from using to make a case.
but they cant prosecute unless the dog puts on weight..
they have to wait till it puts on weight because that proves it was simply lack of food and not an underlying medical condition which caused the weight loss.
That reminds me, when my brother had his Weimaraner, Thunder—well, this breed is particularly bad about chewing, but for some reason Thunder didn't stop there. He would EAT the stuff he chewed up. (Don't know why; he was well-fed.) Plastic, foam, vinyl—he ate my toothbrush once. One time I caught him with a pair of pantyhose ... and the pièce de resistance: once he ate an entire lawn and leaf bag!!! Anyway, this wasn't too good for him, as you can imagine. He was taken to the vet, who told my brother that he could have possibly done a lot of damage to himself. He had to go on a special diet, cooked rice mixed with cooked ground beef and cottage cheese.

I don't know how prevalent that type of problem is with Weimaraners, but I am pretty sure that Thunder would have been in a bad way if Matt hadn't taken him to the vet and then fed him that special diet. (He lived for several years afterward and luckily grew out of his plastic-eating phase.) I wonder if this dog could have a similar problem.
 
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