Decapitated dog’s death prompts huge online response
Posted on Thu, Jul. 28, 2011
By MIKE STUCKA
Hope, a mixed-breed dog that was nearly decapitated in Forsyth this month, was euthanized Tuesday after encountering serious breathing complications.She never left Caldwell Animal Hospital after she was taken there July 7.
“The good thing is she got to know that people could be nice to her, because she got a lot of love when she was in the hospital,” Pat Corley, president of Forsyth’s Save-A-Pet organization, said Wednesday.
Save-A-Pet planned to cover all of Hope’s medical expenses, but people from as far away as Australia donated to help out, and one Forsyth attorney wrote a check for about $1,500 to cover Hope’s expenses that day.
Janet and Shane Smith checked on Hope every day, but the couple never got a chance to take her home.
“She was sweet. She did fight. We just wanted her to have a chance,” Janet Smith said. “She just made such a great effect on so many people in such a short period of time.”
One Facebook page for Hope drew about 53,000 comments. A petition urging the maximum penalty against her assailant was expected to draw 500 signatures, but instead it got 5,000. The person charged with hurting Hope, 19-year-old Monterion Dionte Davis, remains in the Monroe County jail on a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals. Bond has been set at $15,000. Monroe County sheriff’s spokeswoman Allison Selman-Willis said there is nothing else with which to charge Davis. Hope belonged to Davis.
Janet Smith said a cable or cord had been around Hope’s neck, apparently for a long time. Her trachea had been cut, and she was breathing through her neck. A donor arranged to provide the dog with a Bailey chair, which allows dogs to eat slowly from a sitting position so the food slides down their throats.
Corley said Hope was about 40 pounds underweight.
“She just had so much bad happen to her,” Corley said.
But a tough life and death may lead to better lives for other animals, Corley said.
“I think one thing is it’s made people aware that, as in other places, we have animal abuse all over. And people don’t realize how bad it is. This is really bad,” Corley said. “Hope pulled us all together, I think, a little bit closer.”
Smith said that in a typical month she and her husband take home anywhere from three to 15 animals, nearly all to be adopted out to other people. Hope, though, was special, and the Smiths never planned to let her go.
“We just wanted to make sure that she never needed for anything again,” she said.
To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.
Origin of article
“The good thing is she got to know that people could be nice to her, because she got a lot of love when she was in the hospital,” Pat Corley, president of Forsyth’s Save-A-Pet organization, said Wednesday.
Save-A-Pet planned to cover all of Hope’s medical expenses, but people from as far away as Australia donated to help out, and one Forsyth attorney wrote a check for about $1,500 to cover Hope’s expenses that day.
Janet and Shane Smith checked on Hope every day, but the couple never got a chance to take her home.
“She was sweet. She did fight. We just wanted her to have a chance,” Janet Smith said. “She just made such a great effect on so many people in such a short period of time.”
One Facebook page for Hope drew about 53,000 comments. A petition urging the maximum penalty against her assailant was expected to draw 500 signatures, but instead it got 5,000. The person charged with hurting Hope, 19-year-old Monterion Dionte Davis, remains in the Monroe County jail on a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals. Bond has been set at $15,000. Monroe County sheriff’s spokeswoman Allison Selman-Willis said there is nothing else with which to charge Davis. Hope belonged to Davis.
Janet Smith said a cable or cord had been around Hope’s neck, apparently for a long time. Her trachea had been cut, and she was breathing through her neck. A donor arranged to provide the dog with a Bailey chair, which allows dogs to eat slowly from a sitting position so the food slides down their throats.
Corley said Hope was about 40 pounds underweight.
“She just had so much bad happen to her,” Corley said.
But a tough life and death may lead to better lives for other animals, Corley said.
“I think one thing is it’s made people aware that, as in other places, we have animal abuse all over. And people don’t realize how bad it is. This is really bad,” Corley said. “Hope pulled us all together, I think, a little bit closer.”
Smith said that in a typical month she and her husband take home anywhere from three to 15 animals, nearly all to be adopted out to other people. Hope, though, was special, and the Smiths never planned to let her go.
“We just wanted to make sure that she never needed for anything again,” she said.
To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.
Origin of article
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