Animal cruelty
Severely sunburned dog found with skin falling off
Chunks of bloody skin hanging boxer mix's head, back
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Construction superintendent Wade Gardner went to work Wednesday only to be greeted by a horror show.
He and another superintendent arrived at the midtown site, at the corner of North Dodge Boulevard and East Hardy Drive, to find a bleeding dog cowering in a dirt trench.
Chunks of bloody skin were hanging loose and missing from the 2-year-old boxer mix's head and back.
"At first, we thought it got hit by a car," said Gardner, 47, who works with Gilbert-based Niche Contractors Inc.
Gardner and his co-worker filled a hard hat with water for the dog and then called the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
That's when they learned the dog was suffering from severe sunburn.
The Society found a piece of rope still attached to the dog's neck, as if he had been tied out and chewed through it to get out of sun's relentless rays.
"This is a really dramatic example of how animals, like people, can burn," said Marsh Myers, outreach director for the Humane Society.
"A common misconception is that animals have fur and it's going to protect them."
Tie outs have been illegal in Pima County since the mid-1990s, Myers said. They can be especially deadly in the summer.
"A lot of animals are found after it's too late," Myers said. "Field officers tell me it's a grotesque find. The molecules that hold the tissues together starts to disintegrate in the sun. Literally, the skin starts sloughing off right in their hands."
Myers said tie-out complaints, which number 15 to 20 monthly during the summer, are second only to calls reporting animals left in hot vehicles.
Pima Animal Care Center responded to 6,991 animal welfare calls last year, a large number involving tie outs, said manager Kim Janes.
"Tie outs are one of the predominant calls we get," Janes said. "It is unfortunate and it is scary."
In addition to being exposed to the blasting sun, tie outs can snarl an animal, rendering it defenseless; knock over the food and water bowls; or even hang an animal if it tries to jump a fence to get away.
The misdemeanor penalty can be elevated to a felony if the animal suffers severe injuries or dies as a result of being tethered outside, Myers said.
No owner has come looking for the boxer.
Myers said the dog, which the Humane Society staff has named "Bobcat," is recovering very well.
Bobcat is on pain medication and antibiotics while his skin recovers, Myers said. The dog will not be available for adoption until his wounds are fully healed, which will take at least several weeks.
Gardner, an avid animal lover who grew up with horses and dogs and currently has one dog and a cross-eyed cat, is toying with the possibility of adopting Bobcat.
"I gotta check with the wife first," he said, referring to his spouse of 26 years.
His dog, a Queensland heeler named Mocha, lives outside but not on a tie out. Mocha has an outdoor dog house, plenty of shade and her own pool she lets humans use sometimes, Gardner said jokingly
"I'm a third-generation Arizonan," he said. "I know all about the heat. I just wish people would be more conscientious about their animals. I don't understand how anyone could tie up a dog in the blazing heat."
To Wade Gardner who found this poor dog, God Bless you!!! I lived in Tucson 6 years ago and adopted 2 dogs from shelters and they are family. I pray that Bobcat makes a great member to your family. If I still lived there, I would be the first person to go adopt Bobcat and spoil him too.
To the extremely cruel person(s) who allowed this to happen to Bobcat, I would love the opportunity to stake your naked asses out in the desert, no shade or water for a week and let you feel a sunburn like this on your body. But a huge fine, being sent to Tent City and working the chain gang in the sun for months/years would have to do. I pray to God that he forgives you for what you did to this helpless dog, because there are so many people who can't/won't. Karma has a way of giving people what they deserve, and your's will be hell!! You deserve it!!
Rating: 18 Thumbs Down
"But in the end, it's an animal. #1 and #2, why so quick to wish horrible agony on humans. We live in a violent violent world."
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Because it's MORONS like you that say "it's an animal", and dont give a SH@T about them, that help perpetuate this gross cycle.. People can stand up for themselves, if they choose to do so-Dogs and other friends CAN'T..
I just came back from having to send my 16yo Char-Pei to "The Rainbow Bridge", because she was in pain and having seizures from a failing heart..Couldnt even walk 10 feet without passung out. She STILL held on to the end trying to protect me..
The VERY LEAST we can do is to protect them, and whip the living Sh@t out of people that abuse them...