Oogy, The Half Faced Dog

WARNING: ANIMAL ABUSE STORY AHEAD

I saw this segment on Oprah at the gym last week and it was one of those horrifying stories of animal abuse with a very happy ending. When Oogy was a puppy he was tied to a stake and used as bait for pit bulls in a dogfighting ring. He had been thrown in a cage and left to die, and the police raided the facility and he was rescued. When he was first treated the dog suffered severe damage and basically had the side of his face ripped off, his jaw was crushed, and his skull was damaged. Obviously you can still see the aftermaths of those injuries.

He was adopted while still recovering and has been well taken care of ever since. Whats amazing is that despite his horrific beginning he is an extremely loving dog and not at all violent. It is suprising what animals can recover from. One after effect however is that he can't be put in a cage because it reminds him of when he was bait and it terrifies him so his owner drove him 15 hours in a car to be on Oprah so they wouldnt have to crate him on a plane.

The whole thing gets me angry about pit bull fighting all over again. How could anyone tie a puppy to a stake and watch it get torn apart and not do something? I just can't grasp that anyone can have that kind of ambivalence to such pain and suffering.

(By the way, at work my spell check on my blog doesn't work so if you see glaring spelling errors I am just too lazy to re-read my posts very carefully or I dont know how to spell something)