Big barks and tailwags to the Henderson Animal Shelter and Police Department! Now THIS is how you do it right! Notice that even though the starved dog showed his teeth to the combined force, no one shot him! Way to go folks!
Thanks to Kentucky.com for this good news!
Canine survivor: Dog’s solitary island stay is over
VICTORIA MARTY
The Gleaner
HENDERSON, Ky. – From project rescue to project adopt.That’s the story of the white pit bull who was captured and brought to the Henderson animal shelter Dec. 29 after he made an island between Henderson and Indiana his home for at least four days.
“I believe he’s going to be a good dog,” said dog warden Gary Cobb, who held the skinny, 45-pound dog on a leash. “When we first got him out of the woods, he was showing his teeth. (But) he’s getting better.”
Members of the animal shelter and the Henderson Police Department captured the dog that same day.
It was the fourth time they had made that trip to Henderson Island, and that time Cobb shot the pit bull with a tranquilizer gun from a boat when the dog was on the shore.
After two days of trying to capture the dog, officials then left a trap with food each day, but the pit bull slept beside the trap each time, Cobb said.
“He knew what it was,” Cobb laughed as the pit bull stood meekly beside him and leaned against the leg of a reporter.
Cobb estimated the dog was about 1 1/2 years old.
After Cobb shot him with the tranquilizer gun, the dog ran back toward the wooded part of the island and then laid down.
The dog had minor abrasions but – after an experience that officials said probably included a quarter-mile swim through the chilly waters of the Ohio River from Henderson to the island – he was in pretty good shape.
Cobb said the animal shelter will hold the dog for 10 days so that its owner has a chance to claim it. After that, the dog can be adopted.
Overall, interim executive director John Dunaway said the rescue attempts took about seven hours total and that it probably cost about $400 in terms of animal shelter employee labor.
“The dog probably would have died over there,” he said.
