On the 4th of May, 2023, Syracuse Police Animal Cruelty Officers were dispatched to a residence located on Delaware Street, in Syracuse, New York, in response to a report of a dog being left alone in the basement.
A seemingly routine investigation turned out to be one of the most horrific instances of animal abuse these authorities had ever encountered.
When they arrived, they found a German Shepherd tethered by her owner in the basement of her apartment building.
The dog, later named Hope, was found neglected, suffering from extreme malnutrition, completely listless, and clinging to life on the dirt floor of the basement.
Healing Hearts For Hope
This two-year-old German Shepherd was lonely, scared, and above all, hungry. She barked and barked, cried, and called for help, but no one came.
As Animal Alliance of Greater Syracuse reported, when the maintenance man asked the owner where her dog was, she responded with, “Gee, I don’t know – she hasn’t barked for a while.”
You might wonder what kind of monster intentionally abandons her dog and listens to her barks as she dies?
As I’m writing this, I can’t find the words to describe this kind of cruelty. I don’t know, and I will never understand how someone could do something like this, but I know it breaks my heart every time.
Jacqui Foss, the President of the Board at Animal Alliance of Greater Syracuse, said:
“She was actually said to be probably within a couple of hours of passing away, so the police were able to get to her just in time and get her directly to the Veterinary Medical Center.”
Hope was expeditiously transported to the Veterinary Medical Center of CNY, where it was discovered that she had a body score of 0.5 out of 9.
As you can probably already tell, this means that she was in as bad of a condition as she could possibly be in.
The doctors were very doubtful that she would make it, and they even discussed euthanasia as a very reasonable outcome, considering the situation.
Poor Hope was blind and weighed only 40 pounds, which is half of what she was supposed to weigh. She experienced cardiac arrest at the hospital, but the medical staff was able to revive her.
But, Hope was a fighter. They could see a glimmer of hope in her eyes, so they had no other choice but to fight for her life along with her.
Tests showed that this poor girl ate dirt and gravel off the floor in order to survive.
Lying on the basement floor with nothing to eat or drink, this was the only way for her to survive. Can you imagine that?
Thankfully, after a couple of days of everyone fearing for her life, Hope started to make slight progress.
She went from 43 lbs to 45 lbs and then slowly to 48 lbs.
It’s a long and slow process, but it is absolutely worth it.
Maureen Davidson, with HumaneCNY, told CNYCENTRAL that Hope had a long road to recovery, but she was doing very well:
“She went right to an amazing foster home after she was released. The re-feeding schedule is pretty intense, so she has to be fed very slowly over the course of the day. She is just starting to work up to more food for weight gain.”
The vet bill came up to $15,000, but thanks to the fundraiser, “Healing Hearts for Hope”, organized by the AAGS, they managed to collect even more than the anticipated sum of money.
“As the old saying goes, and it couldn’t be more true, IT TAKES A VILLAGE, and this is such an amazing “village” to be a part of,” said the Animal Alliance of Greater Syracuse in their Facebook post.
According to the press release by the Syracuse Police Department, after a lengthy investigation, they finally arrested Hope’s previous owner, Hortence Ngarissona, who was charged with two counts of animal cruelty and released on an appearance ticket.
In the end, I would like to repeat the words of Maureen Davidson and allow this to serve as a reminder to all of us:
“If you see something, say something. If you know of an animal that is suffering, that is not fed, outside all day, looking very skinny or sick, just say something, call somebody.”
