THE people of West Cork have taken ‘Zelda’ and her seven puppies to heart after they were discovered abandoned and ‘mum’ was chained to a gate on Thursday, April 25h.
Speaking to The Southern Star, Aoibhinn O’Sullivan of West Cork Animal Welfare Group said Zelda, a German Shepherd cross and her puppies are doing well now and are recuperating after their horrific ordeal.
‘We received a call from a man who said Zelda had been dumped and chained to a gate on his land, while the puppies were alongside her,’ said Aoibhinn.
‘We went out and found Zelda who was cold as it had been raining. She was in quite a distressed state. It was fairly horrific, especially when there were two to three week old puppies there too.’
She said the public response to their online post has been amazing with people donating to the charity.
‘Our priority now is to keep them warm and fed and bring them back to good health. Zelda is extraordinarily underweight so it’s about keeping her settled and looked after.’
The matter has been reported to gardaí.
Unfortunately, this was the second incident of animal cruelty in West Cork recently after another dog was found chained to a tree outside Lough Avoul in Glengarriff.
‘This just goes to show the laws regarding animal cruelty need to change soon,’ said Aoibhinn of westcorkanimals.com.