NEWS AND COMMENT-SINGAPORE: This is an extraordinary story of animal neglect. The owners of this elderly Shih Tzu calmly walked into an animal rescue in Singapore, HOPE Dog Rescue Singapore, and relinquished him. They appeared to have been totally blind to the fact that they had neglected their dog for the entirety of his life. He had never visited a veterinary clinic before and his appearance shocked the staff at the shelter. They said that they weren’t sure what they were looking at and that “the smell of rotting flesh filled the room”.
I cannot show the photographs of this dog on this page because advertisers won’t allow it. Therefore, if you do want to have a look at the photographs I should be pleased if you would click on the links below which will take you to a page where there are no adverts.
PHOTO 1: Deaf & blind Shih Tzu, covered with tumours. Photo: HOPE Dog Rescue Singapore
PHOTO 2: Deaf & blind Shih Tzu, covered with tumours. Photo: HOPE Dog Rescue Singapore.
Click on the link to see how he looked after surgery:
PHOTO 3: How Buddy looked after vet treatment. Photo: HOPE Dog Rescue.
I can describe how Buddy appeared before treatment in words without upsetting advertisers. This is how Buddy appeared when he was given up to the rescue by the owners whose behaviour indicated that they thought “everything was fine”.
He was skin and bones. He was twice the age that the owners claimed. They claimed that he was seven years old but the vet estimated twice that. He had not been neutered and he was blind and deaf. He suffered from serious health issues. Buddy had high blood pressure, kidney issues, and an open mass under his neck that was attached to major blood vessels inside his body and therefore it could not be removed.
He had puss oozing from his gums. Some of his teeth were removed very quickly as they were rotten. Both his testicles were oversized and they were removed under sedation. His body was covered with warts and they were removed. They were benign tumours which had spread due to neglect.
His right ear was in a bad way with a swollen and infected mass. They partially removed his ear flap. It took a two-hour surgery to achieve that. The mass weighed 350 g. They decided that it had been left bleeding and growing for more than 12 months.
It was found to be cancerous after further testing and he was found to have been suffering from basal cell carcinoma which had spread to his lungs.
Despite all this, Buddy is a sweet little soul. In their words he is the “sweetest little soul ever”. He is stable and healing well according to the reports. He will be discharged to a foster home after a few more days of supervision by a veterinarian and veterinary staff.
The staff have reported the gross neglect and abuse to the authorities.
Comment: you won’t get a worse case of animal neglect than this. I have seen tens of thousands of photographs, regrettably, of neglected animals and this takes the biscuit by a mile.
Below is a picture of a health Shih Tzu for comparison:
