(WXYZ) — Tackling an epidemic of animal abuse and neglect, we're meeting two dogs just rescued from horrible living conditions in Bloomfield Township.
Their owner was just convicted of abandonment and a local rescue is now hoping to place the dogs in a loving home.
On Thursday, I visited the officer who got them to safety and found out how they were ultimately discovered.
Brother and sister pit bull mixes Lucky and Lulu can soak up a room with their warmth, but Bloomfield Township Animal Welfare Officer Elizabeth Summerfield said many of their days were spent in the bitter cold, chained up outside of a rental home.
Recently, the landlord called to report their owner left them behind after he was evicted.
“He never returned for the dogs. Thank goodness the landlord called me and said this guy isn’t coming back," Summerfield said.
Now, they're being fed properly and housed indoors. The 3-year-old dogs are in need of adoption.
Slowly but surely, they're starting to show their personality again while the former owner has pled guilty to abandonment.
“They were suffering from severe flu strike, which is common. Lucky was so fearful he was literally living in a hole he dug in the ground," Summerfield said.
“Giving them a loving home together would be a dream come true, we have seen such progress with both of them since they came in from outdoors," Catherine Mackenzie, a volunteer, said.
I also reached out to an animal rescue in Detroit who said cases like this and even worse have exploded across metro Detroit.
It’s terrible. Heartbreaking. The amount of neglect, cruelty and dogs being left outside," Chantal Rzewnicki from The Karens Rescue said.
PAW Animal Rescue is assisting in getting Lucky and Lulu placed. Their number is 248-444-7195 and you can also visit their website, https://paawarren.org/.
“We take animal abandonment, neglect and abuse seriously. It’s not something you do and get away with," Summerfield said.
