Monday night, the ANNA Shelter received a call from Erie police about a dog that was found in a crate under a bridge. At the time, police believed she was frozen and already dead. Erie police and the Anna Cruelty Team are urging the community to come forward with any details that can help them serve justice in this case.
The dog that was found is a six-month-old husky, now called Amy. Founder and director of the ANNA Shelter, Ruth Thompson, said that Amy was only able to survive such harsh weather conditions because huskies have two layers of fur, reasoning that if she were a breed with less coat, she wouldn’t have made it.
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“Not only is this dog completely emaciated, she was covered in urine and feces of her own and she was frozen, so all three of those things, you know what I mean. So, you starve your dog, you don’t clean up after it, you put it out in the freezing cold, like, those are three steps, and I don’t understand it,” Thompson said, stressing the severity of animal cruelty.
Amy currently weighs around 15 pounds, which is less than half of what a husky her age should weigh. With such little body fat, she was even more susceptible to the cold.
After receiving the call, the ANNA Cruelty Team sprang into action. Amy arrived at their facility unresponsive. With assistance from veterinarian Dr. Windell Lyon over the phone, they gave Amy IV fluids, vitamin injections and warmed her up over the span of three hours before she finally became responsive.
“The first thing we started doing is just rubbing her and trying to get her circulation going again, and then we threw some blankets -just like last year- we threw some blankets in the dryer to warm them up,” ANNA Cruelty Team member Steve Jacobson said, describing a strategy that they also used in a similar animal cruelty case from last year. Jacobson said that situations like this can be avoided when witnesses do their part by reporting abused and neglected animals.
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“I think about where she was, at least where I think she was dumped last night, there had to be somebody that saw something,” he said.
Amy spent the rest of the night with another ANNA Cruelty team member, who monitored her condition throughout the night.
As of Tuesday night, she is much better and enjoying plenty of cuddles under the care of Dr. Sarah Zeigler at the Anna Wellness Center West.
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