Posted on 11/24/2012 10:24:46 PM PST by Altariel
BOISE -- On a road outside Gooding, Idaho, Sarah Starr saw something that stopped her in her tracks - a dog with a life-threatening injury.
"We saw it on the side of the road. Its paw was severely mangled," she said.
Starr tried to catch the dog multiple times, but even with a crushed paw, it was still too fast.
"We were able to put out food and it came back for the food," said Starr. "It was hungry enough that it didn't know we were sneaking up behind it."
When she caught him, she headed back to Boise. She and a friend started calling veterinarians.
"We called a lot of veterinarian clinics and unfortunately, they're running businesses so it's hard to take an animal in without money down. We ran into a lot of people that were hesitant, knowing that we were kind of in the circumstances that we weren't sure what this was going to cost, it wasn't our animal," Starr said. "Some of the people we called were quoting us $2,700 which was unaffordable to us at that time."
That's where Broadway Vet and Dr. Darrin Everett came in.
"Even in times of financial stress, it's important to treat the patient as best we can, give them some medication at least to take pain away and then we can figure out what to do from there," said Dr. Everett, the Head Veterinarian at Broadway Vet.
He agreed to do surgery to help the dog for only $800. Dr. Everett says the injury was probably from a trap.
"Just by looking at it when he walked in the door, it's a significant crushing injury just below the wrist, which really fits with a trap," said Dr. Everett. "Typically when they get their foot caught they will chew it off, and this was not chewed off. His foot was still attached by a small amount of soft tissue, the bones were obviously all broken, but there was still some soft tissue attaching his foot. And that would lead me to believe that somebody had to have released him from the trap because there's no way that you can really escape from those traps without removing your foot."
"I'm very concerned about these traps. I think that in Idaho there's no safe place to put these anymore. I mean, every place in Idaho is traversed by somebody at this point in time, and if a pet can get into these traps so can a five-year-old," said Starr. "I support people's rights to hunt. We hunt in this state and that's OK, but I do think that we need to hunt humanely."
The team at Broadway Vet had to remove the dog's left front leg. But Everett had hope for the dog.
"Very sweet dog, really not stressed, very stable. Clearly it happened a significant time in the past, probably a couple of weeks, but a super sweet dog, really easy to work with, and probably was going to be a really successful patient," he said.
Dr. Everett said he will make a full recovery and be a great pet.
The day after Thanksgiving, Starr is thankful for his compassion and her new pet's fighting spirit.
Dr. Everett and his team also neutered the dog, free of charge. If you would like to help cover the costs of the two surgeries, call Broadway Vet.
Doggie ping
Animals can really bring out the best (and unfortunately the worst) in people. God bless everyone involved with helping this little guy.
Most likely it was a stray who's owners just dumped the dog off instead of doing the proper thing.
I guess if people have hundreds of dollars to care for strays that up to them.
There is a much cheaper and faster way to take care of them.
There is no shortage of domestic cats and dogs.
Exactly, nothing but anti-hunting and anti-trapping propaganda. Idaho just passed a law to protect hunting and trapping, but there is a large group still trying to put an end to it.
“There is a much cheaper and faster way to take care of them. There is no shortage of domestic cats and dogs.”
Those of us on this forum who love our dogs, believe every hurt dog is worth saving - this dog was a sweet dog who got trapped - certainly, he deserves to live his life.
I love my dogs too. But they are just dogs and there is no stortage of them.
One dies you get another.
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