Animal control officers in Kansas City, Kansas are investigating a case of animal cruelty after finding a dog that weighs roughly half of what it should weigh.
Officer Jim Wendt has worked for Animal Control in Kansas City, Kansas for about five years. That’s enough to see all sorts of dogs and cats run wild. But what happened to this dog, is a whole different animal.
“We got a call on a dog out that was hanging outside someone’s house,” Wendt explains. “It broke my heart when you see something like that. This is probably the skinniest dog I’ve ever picked up.”
The boxer hound mix is believed to be around 5 years old. He weighs 44 pounds and workers at the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City say he should weigh between 70 and 80 pounds.
Jai Desai and Julie Larson are both nursing him back to health.
“They’re living a life you wish they didn’t live,” Larson explains. “And it makes you want to cry.”
“I just know that when you see a dog like this, you have quite a job ahead of you,” Desai adds.
Workers say the road to recovery may take weeks, maybe even months.
Investigators think finding the person responsible may never happen. The dog has no microchip, no tags and for officers that means no leads. Desai believes he was housebroken at one time.
“We just know at one point someone either owned him or cared enough about him to get him neutered," said Desai. 'And that’s always hard when you know they’ve been owned and it comes to this.”
Workers at the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City have named him Woody after the character in the movie Toy Story. It may be some time before he’s ready for adoption. The humane society is accepting donations to help pay for Woody’s treatment. If you’d like to help, clickhereto visit the society’s website.
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