Try as I might, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to understand the motives behind those who abuse or abandon animals.
When it comes to the latter of those two, there are very few circumstances wherein it’s acceptable to leave your dog at a shelter and drive away. I can possibly understand if you’re seriously sick and your pet’s welfare is suffering, with no one there to step in. Or perhaps I can come around to you losing your own home and the pet therefore being faced with the prospect of living life on the streets.
These, however, are extremes; 90% of the time people abandon pets because they don’t want them anymore or they’re simply tired of looking after them. This I can’t abide, and I know I’m not alone. Those who say the animals won’t know any different are just plain and simply wrong, and there’s a perfect video to demonstrate this.
The Saving Carson Shelter Dogs’ Facebook page recently posted a short clip of one of their Labrador Retriever and Pitbull crosses. The dog’s name is AJ, and in the video he can be seen shivering and whimpering as he lays on a bed inside the shelter …
Of course, the workers at Saving Carson Shelter Dogs try to soothe him, but for a dog who has grown used to a home and a family, there can be no substitute.
Alongside the clip, the shelter explained: “Sweet AJ is beautiful, he has amazing energy and he was surrendered with his beautiful brother Toby. They did great walking on a leash next to each other when they came in but now they are confused and alone and missing each other and home. They need help.
“AJ is 100 percent pure sweet, gentle, loving beauty, he loves other dogs and he is missing his brother, He is shutting down, he has a cold and he needs your help…”
Watch the video of AJ here:
It should come as no surprise that the heart-wrenching footage soon went viral, amassing more than five millions views and an abundance of comments and shares.
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the crying dog, AJ, found his forever home. In a follow-up post, the shelter wrote: “This beauty touched the hearts of a lot of people and today he was lucky enough to take his freedom walk out of the shelter, even while he is struggling with a cold.
“He was rescued, and we are hoping tomorrow that rescue will work with the different rescue that is saving his bonded brother Toby, so they can be reunited. Both have been seriously depressed since they were separated…Happy life sweet AJ.”
For AJ – and hopefully for Toby, too – being left at a shelter was simply a temporary misery before they found new, loving families. Sadly, for the vast majority of dogs this isn’t the case.
Millions of pets around the world are neglected or mistreated every year. It’s our aim to stop this wherever possible, but for that we need your help.
Sharing stories like this one can really hit home with people who would otherwise remain ignorant to the damage one can cause to a pet if they don’t take their duty of care seriously. Share this on Facebook so that everyone hears AJ’s story! Together, we can help.
