The female puppy was found by a good Samaritan earlier in the week in a trash bag near a Newport, Tennessee, McDonalds, and brought to a veterinary office, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported. The puppy was then brought to Friends Animal Shelter of Cocke County.
Shelter workers named the puppy Hope. She’s estimated to be about 2 months old. Shelter director Elisha Henry said she cried when she first saw the puppy.
“This is beyond heinous,” Henry said. “When I say I’ve never seen anything like this, I mean it’s an 8-week-old puppy and more than 50 percent of it is burned. … Somebody did that to this puppy on purpose. And it got dropped in a trash bag.”
Hope’s body is covered in chemical burns so severe, Henry said, that she can hardly sit and has to be given food and water through a syringe because she can’t eat.
When Henry realized how severe Hope’s injuries were, she called Brother Wolf Animal Rescue in Asheville, North Carolina. Hope is now in their care.
"Hope's treatment will include pain medication, antibiotics, topical ointments, wound flushes, and a surgery later this week to remove necrotic tissue from her ear and tongue," Brother Wolf Animal Rescue said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Brother Wolf began a fundraiser for Hope's treatment. As of Friday afternoon, the campaign had raised $5,344.84, surpassing its $2,000 goal.
“At just 2 months old, she has already known so much fear, pain and suffering. Safe in Brother Wolf’s care, she will finally know love and compassion for perhaps the first time in her life,” Brother Wolf Animal Rescue said.
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