Animal advocates need your help finding suspects after dog dies from severe neglect

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) -Animal advocates need your help tonight finding the person or people responsible for starving a dog and throwing it in an apartment dumpster.

One volunteer at MAS says she works with some of the most severe cases of neglect at the Shelter but the case of Anakin, the abused pup, completely broke her. She’s now worried that if the people responsible are not caught this could happen again.

Anakin is a 4-year-old mixed breed Pitbull. Last Wednesday, Staff members at Hickory Farms apartments in Hickory Hill found him in a wire crate in a dumpster.

“He was a special plea to the rescue community. He was severely emaciated. He had a body score of 1 out of 9. He was very skinny, the skinniest dog I have ever seen in my life,” said Anne.

Anne, who only wants us to use her first name, has been a volunteer at the shelter for over a year. Anne decided to take Anakin home to nurture him back to health.

“I fed the dog every two hours a few bites of food. He was in really bad shape; he couldn’t stand on his own. He was so weak, and he had open sores all over his body,” said Anne.

Along with being starved for years, Anne believes the previous owners cut off his ears with scissors. Anakin had a bottle cap stuck in his teeth stopping him from closing his mouth, and they even found wooden sticks in his stomach.

" He was somebody’s dog. The poor shape he was in, the poor condition that did not happen overnight. That is something that happened over years and years and years,” said Anne.

In hopes of saving Anakin, a rescue group called “Believe in Buster” drove all the way from Virginia to Memphis to help save him. The rescue even footed the $3,000 vet bill.

“It is just an example of what happens so often in this community. The Memphis animal shelter gets swamped with dogs who are in this condition. Rescues try to help but end of in thousands of dollars in vet bills,” said Anne.

MAS director, Alexis Pugh, said officials at Hickory Farms are fully cooperating with this investigation. She is hoping that someone recognizes Anakin and does the right thing.

“That kind of action by an individual, don’t think that they’ll stop at that. They will commit acts of cruelty again and that act of cruelty could happen to a human, if they were willing to do that to an innocent animal,” said Pugh.

Unfortunately, the apartment complex did not have cameras pointed at the dumpster that could have caught whoever is responsible. If you recognize Anakin you can call 528-cash and leave an anonymous tip.

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