Galway Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have taken in two litters of abandoned puppies in the last 24 hours.
The SPCA made an emotional post on twitter detailing how one of the litters of puppies had been tied up in a crate and abandoned on a bog road which is a regular dumping site.
Our hearts are heavy as we are weighed down by cruelty, neglect and the overall burden of this continuous problem of unwanted/abandoned animals.
These babies were left to die 💔
They are currently at our vets as we have grave concerns about their health 😪 pic.twitter.com/QzeucwxC1R
— Galway SPCA (@GalwaySPCA) September 21, 2022
Gript spoke to kennel manager Emma O’Brien who said that this is far from a rare situation and that it happens almost ‘everyday’ with adult dogs.
“90% of those are dogs that no one’s going to claim back”.
Litter 1 update:
Found in a crate, tied with rope, they are underweight, lethargic, flea ridden, worm burdened, have ulcerated eyes, scalded paws & are weak from lack of nutrition. They are like wisps of hay & sadly are all at the vets with Parvo.
The next 48 hours are crucial! pic.twitter.com/SFQMy7KGDr
— Galway SPCA (@GalwaySPCA) September 22, 2022
O’Brien said that her kennels are already full with about 45 full time residents, and as soon as one is housed she has a list of other unfortunate canines ready to take the place.
Litter 2 update:-
Six terrified, wet, bedraggled babies in a hamster cage. Their fear is raw, they continue to face the wall, huddled on top of one another.
No matter how loud we shout for better law enforcement its never going to be enough.https://t.co/9BUBVG8Cg5
— Galway SPCA (@GalwaySPCA) September 22, 2022
She said, “We used to get boxes of kittens left outside overnight and adult dogs tied to our gate” but that this behaviour has stopped since the kennel installed cctv.
We asked her why she thought people would resort to leaving the puppies to die instead of surrendering them to animal shelters to which she replied that the animal welfare situation in her locality is so dire that many shelters simply ‘can’t take them’.
O’Brien continued saying that the state of animal welfare has ‘gone back to the early 2000s level’.
She says the abandoned puppies were likely in the crate for a longer period of time and that although they are all ‘miraculously’ still alive, they are very weak and poorly.
“These are pups that are born to mothers who were not looked after” she said, noting that little pups like these are not bred for profit and therefore are seen as disposable to owners who do not take care of their adult dogs.
“The mothers are already in bad condition giving birth to these babies and they don’t get fed enough so they don’t have enough milk so the babies don’t grow properly because they don’t have enough nutrition in the early days”.
She says the mother dogs keep the puppies alive, but that they are not healthy “at any stage of their young lives”.
The puppies are currently recovering at a local vet’s with the first litter showing signs of parvo virus. O’Brien says she hopes it is a mild strain and that she is greatly surprised that so far all have survived.
The second litter, she says, are eating well although they also need ongoing care.
‘It’s a long time since I’ve seen fear like that in puppies that young’.
O’Brien said that people often ask her if she remembers every dog that leaves her shelter, but that it is the animals she had no power to rescue that stick in her mind.
She says, “I remember every dog I couldn’t help”.