A YOUNG dog who went missing for three weeks has been returned to its owners after being found and then turned over for care to a local pet advocacy group.
The dog, estimated to be 12 weeks old and with its owners for just two weeks before going missing, had a particularly bad case of mange, a contagious skin condition caused by parasitic mites.
What made it worse, said Cam Bellamy from Dogs Deserve Better, were infections caused by scratching to relieve the itching caused by the mites.
First reports, posted to websites and subsequently published, speculated that the dog had been abused.
Bellamy said the appearance of the dog may have led to that speculation.
“From where the couple lives to where the dog was found at Findlay Lake is quite a distance. I'm surprised the dog made it out there. Its eyes were glued shut from the puss,” she said.
“But I could tell nobody had been abusive to her. And I would know right away. It was not hand shy and was not skittish. It was thin, but it had been outside for a period of time,” Bellamy added.
After picking up the dog, Bellamy took it to a Kitimat vet for treatment and returned to Terrace with medications for continuing care.
“She is healing and there is a great prognosis,” said Bellamy of the dog's condition last week.
She was contacted by the dog's owners after friends made them aware the animal had been found.
Bellamy said the couple have now made changes at their residence.
“Any dog should really have an enclosure outside,” said Bellamy.
She said the couple has also reimbursed Dogs Deserve Better for the costs of the care.
This article is a follow up to an earlier one posted Sept. 21, 2011. For the sake of reader convenience, it is reprinted here.
"PEOPLE HAVE to do something about the animal abuse, cruelty, neglect and abandonment that goes on here.
That's the word from a resident who's tired of finding animals that have been hurt, injured or worse, in the city.
Susan Turnbull says she came here seven years ago with two dogs and now has four dogs and 12 cats and has helped more than 20 cats and nine dogs treated badly by humans.
The other day she helped a girl try to catch a kitten downtown that looked like it had been dumped off.
“People say 'oh yeah, we saw it running around.' Why didn't you try to catch it?” says Turnbull.
She's found kittens in the garbage, under trailers, and rescued a dog that had a sweater on all winter that had to be surgically removed from its skin.
She recently helped rescue a puppy that had developed a eye infection and then was dumped by Findlay Lake Road to fend for itself.
Someone saw the puppy and called Dogs Deserve Better, who took it in and now the puppy received treatment and is slowly getting better.
And people seem to think a cat can fend for itself if it's just abandoned.
“People think you can let your cat go in the wild because it will catch birds and mice," said Turnbull.
But she noted a cat will only survive if it has been given hunting skills.
Turnbull wants people to know what's going on and says other animal lovers are as angry as she is.
She has to clean her house every day because of all her animals but wouldn't change a thing.
“Morally I wouldn't do anything different,” she says about helping out animals in distress."