Cindy Lou had just had puppies when she was either tossed from a moving car or run over on purpose. No one knows exactly what happened on a Georgia road that night, but her injuries were so severe vets guessed they were no accident.
Screaming in pain and full of milk, Cindy Lou was picked up by animal control and taken to the local shelter, where her condition would have soon landed her on the euthanasia list. Thankfully, Second Chance Rescue NYC heard of her plight and pulled her from the shelter.
Two plates, 18 screws and countless hours of physical therapy later, she is able to walk with a limp. She still loves people and is now up for adoption.
Dottie was rescued by California rescue group Marley’s Mutts early last year after being dumped, pregnant, at a high-kill public shelter. After she arrived at the rescue, she gave birth to a litter of puppies – all stillborn.
“She was very scared and depressed but still very sweet,” Amanda Brooks, foster and adoption coordinator for Marley’s Mutts, told The Dodo. Brooks added that stillborn births aren’t uncommon in dogs who have been bred and bred, and bred again. Dottie went to a loving foster home and was soon adopted.
Esmeralda was around 4 years old but weighed less than 20 pounds when she was found under a bunch of blankets in the Bronx, unable to walk.
Esme’s ears had been ripped and she was missing chunks of flesh from her legs and back. It appeared she had had several litters, then been used as bait to teach dogs to fight.
She was rescued from New York City’s Animal Care Centers (ACC) by Second Chance Rescue in December 2014, hospitalized for a month and later adopted by Jessica Lynne Cangemi. “She was used as a breeding factory and a chew toy for the bigger dogs,” Cangemi wrote in a Facebook post. “And when they were done with her?? They simply tossed her away. Disposed of her.”
Nova had a similar nightmare past. Her nipples were literally touching the ground when her adoptive mom, Dawn Lessey, picked her up at New York’s Hempstead Animal Shelter. Her back bowed down in the middle from constantly being pregnant – vets guessed she had been bred every heat she’d had in her 4 or so years.
“She was bred until she didn’t produce quality puppies, then they attempted to home crop her ears and throw her in as a bait dog,” Lessey said.
A police officer found Nova in a cardboard box on a construction site, whimpering uncontrollably, her ears bleeding. Her teeth were filed down to nubs, a tactic dog fighters often use to prevent bait animals from defending themselves against prized fighting dogs. Her trachea was crushed and her ears cut so short that she now wears a ski mask in the winter to protect the exposed nerve endings from the cold.
“She has every reason to hate humans, every reason to hate other dogs, and she’s just like, ‘Go ahead and pet me,’” Lessey said. She’s working with Nova to make her a therapy dog for hospitalized children.