Dog beaten, set alight

Press, 19 February 1988, Page 3

Dog beaten, set alight

By

SARONA IOSEFA

A Linwood householder yelled at his dogs to stop barking early yesterday — and probably missed his chance to see who beat and half-strangled a gentle dog, before setting her on fire on a neighbouring section. “The dogs were just going crazy, but I couldn’t be bothered going out to see what was happening, so I yelled at them to be quiet,” said Mr Nick Thoen.

“If I had got up, I might have seen what happened to the poor dog.” The good-natured bitch is now recovering very slowly in the care of a

veterinarian, Ms Pru Galloway. Mr Thoen found the badly injured bitch when he let his own dogs out for a run, and one of them ran over to where the black bitch was lying. “When I saw her, I thought she was going to die, she looked so bad,” he said.

The bitch was found sealed in a blue plastic bag and it looked as though someone had attempted to bury the bag in a hole nearby. “Somehow, she had managed to crawl out. She had a collar of some kind tied really tightly round her neck and she had been badly burned in a

few places,” said Mr Thoen.

Ms Galloway said she suspected someone had poured some sort of fuel over the dog and set her alight.“ The skin on her nose has partly come off, and what is left comes off at the wipe of a hand, which is characteristic of someone actually dousing her in something. “Most of her coat is singed in places and it took a few washes to get all the melted plastic off her,” said Ms Galloway.

Although the bitch suffered no internal injury, some deep cuts revealing white flesh are apparent where she was tied round all four legs with twine.

One of her ear canals has been severely burned as well as much of her coat on the left side of the face.

The bitch has ulcers on her eyes which, according to Ms Galloway, will probably heal with a little care. Bicycle tubes which had been wrapped tightly round her neck had to be cut away. Ms Galloway said it was puzzling that the bitch seemed to have been well looked after by someone before she was burnt. “Someone loved that dog, because she is well fed and has a nicely kept coat. I don’t think the person who did this to her owned the dog. She is so

docile that it would not have taken much for someone to have just picked her up.” In spite of the bitch’s nightmare experience yesterday, Ms Galloway said she had not tried to attack anyone. “She’s a beautiful dog, with a really quiet nature. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to harm her,” said Ms Galloway. Once fully recovered, the bitch will be cared for by Mrs Estelle Win, of Dogwatch. “When she really comes right we will give her to a home that truly cares for her. I am going to make very sure of that,” said Mrs Win.