A small dog named Oscar received a new start after being thrown into a trash can and left for death.
Terry Sparrow and his fiancée were released for a walk Wednesday evening near Camosun Bog at Pacific Spirit Park when they made a disturbing discovery.
Sparrow went to spit his gum when they saw a toy poodle lying on the garbage.
“I couldn’t believe it, just shocked, horrified, just heartbreaking,” he told Global News.
The couple had recently lost their eight-year-old dog and was on the track that evening to help their mourning process.
“Given, as I said, why we lack our dog here that we lost, it was just heartbreaking and we knew that we should somehow enter into action to help him,” said Sparrow.
They took the dog, which they named Oscar, at home for a bath and a dinner.
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“He couldn’t stay very long, he couldn’t walk, he continued to light up,” said Sparrow. “You could see that it was in a certain distress and pain.”
The next day, after alerting all the own authorities, the couple took Oscar to the veterinarian. Fortunately, he was then returned to the friend of the Attentive Hands family and LAURIE SCHILDT dog lifeguard.
Oscar was diagnosed with three broken ribs and a dislocated hip, as well as neurological problems.
“During my 20 years, I have never met a situation like this,” Schildt told Global News.
“It is cruelty, a complete cruelty to throw a little living creature in the trash as if it were garbage.”
Schildt thinks that Oscar is about 10 years old, but he had no collar and that his micropuce is not recorded.
The RCMP and the BCSPCA investigate and are looking for the owner of the poodle. The maximum penalty under the law on the prevention of cruelty to animals is a fine of $ 75,000 and two years’ imprisonment.
“We want to see who abandoned this dog, who threw this dog in the trash,” said Eileen Driver with BC SPCA.
“We want them to show up. Maybe they thought the dog died, but we don’t know.”
Thanks to a good fortune and a kindness, Oscar did not die.
“He has a lot of fight in him,” said Schildt.
She does not know if she will keep Oscar once he has undergone surgery, but if she does not do so, she will ensure that he finds herself in the best place possible.
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