This is a feelgood story about a rescue dog but I think that it is also an educational story about how rescue animals can be euthanised when they should not be; when they should be saved and adopted. It concerns Pumpkin described as a “pocket bully”. Pumpkin has the features of a small bully XL dog I suppose but he appears to be entirely legal in the UK. That point needs to be got out of the way but it also needs to be confirmed (see more about XL bully dogs at the end of the post).
He was abandoned by his owner by being tied to the gates of a council-run dog pound (because he is a miniature XL bully?). The pound took him in but under their care he lost half of his weight from 30 kg to 15 within a few months. They thought he had cancer and decided to euthanise him.
Dr. Sharon Williams, the founder of Celandine Would Animal Rescue received a text from the staff at the pound asking if she could take in Pumpkin. But just at that moment a staff member said that it was too late for Sharon Williams to take the dog because he had just been sedated and they were putting him to sleep.
But as it happened, they couldn’t find a vein through which to inject the drugs to put him to sleep and so they texted the vet again which gave her a second opportunity to take him in which she happily grasped. She had been concerned that she had missed that opportunity. She said that her heart sank “knowing that if I’d have just seen the text a few minutes before he would still be alive.”
And so, Sharon took him in and she said that “he was totally emaciated and look tired, sad and ill”. But Pumpkin was keen to be the companion of an owner. There was a spark of life in him and he wanted to be cared for and he showed this by wagging his tail enthusiastically despite his poorly condition.
He wanted to be loved and Sharon love him by performing blood tests and employing specialist ultrasound scans to rule out cancer and to re-diagnose him as suffering from a food allergy. She put him on a specialist hypoallergenic diet and he recovered dramatically. She said that he “was thriving and full of life.”
She was able to adopt him out to new owners who fell in love with him. He is a happy dog living a full life with a companion dog. Sharon said that, “He just loves people and is always happy when snuggled next to someone on the sofa.”
That is the story. A sweet and loving dog who missed death by a whisker. It’s an interesting story because when you dig a little bit deeper you see an issue which is not so heartwarming. The staff at the pound decided he had cancer and were trying to kill him but this was a misdiagnosis. Did they properly diagnose him? It seems not. He lost weight and therefore they appear to have made the assumption that he had cancer. That would appear also to be an act of carelessness but I don’t have the full story and I can’t be too critical because they had the presence of mind to contact Dr. Sharon who looked after him who has ensured that he will enjoy the rest of his life.
You might well know that there are laws in the UK now which make it illegal to own an American bully XL dog. You have to have a licence to keep this breed of dog and you have to comply with the terms of licence which means the dog being on a lead at all times in public places and wearing a muzzle. There are other stipulations. Pumpkin appears not to fall within this category but as mentioned this needs to be confirmed. This may be due to his small size.
CLICK THIS TO READ ABOUT AMERICAN XL BULLY DOGS
From Reddit.com
This is five years old.
The people who gave me their dog are lying about something
by inDogRescue
