Months of neglect requires emergency treatment at the MSPCA-Angell

BOSTON/METHUEN – Rocky, a one-year-old English Bulldog seized by local law enforcement after living in squalor, was rushed to Boston’s Angell Animal Medical Center last week suffering from multiple medical issues including a life-threatening case of pneumonia. Angell’s Emergency and Critical Care staff immediately placed Rocky in an oxygen tank to facilitate his breathing and provided 24-hour-a-day critical care for the emaciated dog for the past week. Rocky continues to receive rehabilitative care from the staff at the MSPCA at Nevins Farm as staff search for his new home.

Rocky’s dramatic story began to unravel last month when a service worker noted that he was covered in his own feces and clearly neglected. Rocky was seized by local police and brought to the MSPCA at Nevins Farm in Methuen where staff discovered that he was micro-chipped, a form of permanent identification. Research performed by the MSPCA’s adoption center staff revealed that the microchip was registered to a local pet store, and local police later learned that the dog had been stolen as a puppy one year earlier. 

“When Rocky first came to the MSPCA, he was extremely thin, suffered from untreated skin and eye issues and later developed a life threatening case of pneumonia in his weakened state,” said Mike Keiley, manager of the Noble Family Animal Care and Adoption Center at Nevins Farm. “Thanks to the emergency treatment he received at Angell, we have been able to bring him back on the road to recovery, however Rocky will require ongoing medical care for several months to come.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

The MSPCA is requesting donations from the public for Rocky’s care at www.mspca.org/rocky. The cost of Rocky’s life-saving treatment to date is $2,500, however that figure will grow as he undergoes eye surgery that will require rehabilitative and post-surgery treatment. Collected funds surpassing the cost of Rocky’s care will go directly to the Angels for Animals fund to care for other animals at Nevins Farm who require medical treatment. 

“Rocky has certainly had a ‘rocky’ start to his life,” continued Keiley. “We can only imagine what he has endured over the past year however, we hope that the right adoptive family will fall in love with him, and be committed to continuing his medical treatment and securing him the training that he has missed out on.” 

The MSPCA at Nevins Farm will accept adoption applications from experienced “adult-only” dog owners beginning Friday, July 17.