By Grace Cushnie
Staff entering an animal rescue centre were stopped in their tracks last week when they realised a dog had been tied to their gate and abandoned.
The dog had been tied with three restraints – a tow rope which the dog had chewed through, a slip lead and also a chain lead.
The slip lead had twisted around the chain lead, tightening around the poor animal’s neck, nearly killing her.
Frightened and aggressive, she had to be sedated by the vet to stop her dying from strangulation while staff freed her.
Sadly, the heart-breaking incident on Wednesday morning (NOV4) at NANNAs (Northamptonshire Animals Needing Nurturing and Adoption) in Irthlingborough is not an isolated case.
Petrina Alderman, Co-Founder and Trustee of NANNAs, said several similar incidents had happened previously, not just with dogs but “cats, chickens, roosters and rabbits.”
Who abandoned poor Tui, as she has now been named by the centre, is not known.
Tui is a very rare breed in this country, which staff believe would make her very recognisable, and someone, somewhere, must know something about her past.
Anyone with any information about Tui is urged to phone 07921 215049. The NANNAs team are desperate to find out basic information about her such as her real name, and if she’s been vaccinated etc.
She is microchipped but is still registered under her breeder’s name as “puppy 2,” with the mobile number no longer in existence.
NANNAs is working closely with a Thai Ridgeback rescue group to figure out the best future for Tui.
Her breed is not classed as a ‘domesticated’ breed, and therefore she needs specialist handling and an experienced home, and cannot be rehoused in a domestic home.
Petrina also highlighted how NANNAs, in the same way as hundreds of rescue centres over the UK, is suffering huge financial cuts due to the Covid pandemic.
NANNAs was forced to close its adoption service, one of the main sources of income for the centre, throughout both lockdowns (March-June and again currently).
Neither can its team do collections or run fundraising events, which are another essential form of income for rescue centres.
“It’s been really busy with adoptions between lockdowns but financially it’s been crap,” Petrina admitted.
She urged people to keep an eye out for updates on the centre’s Facebook page, where the centre recently ran an online auction to raise funds.
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