GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: The following post contains mentions of torture, abuse, and graphic images of injuries.
Poor Nelson is a good dog who was done incredibly wrong by human hands. But for the abuse and cruelty dealt this three-year-old darling, he still loves people and has won every heart at the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia (HSNEGA).
Nelson’s rescue began when a dog lover spotted him wandering lost and confused along a Jackson County, GA, roadside and recognized right away that something was wrong. Stopping to help, the kind soul saw this poor pup was in terrible pain because someone had fastened a zip-tie around his penis, and the injury it caused was horrifying.
Horrific and Deliberate Abuse
On Facebook, the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia reported that Nelson had “not stopped crying since he arrived” in their care.
“A zip tie had been tied so tightly around his penis that it had become swollen, so much so, the tissue had begun to die. . . and as you can imagine, this was unbearably painful for poor Nelson.”
The University of Georgia Veterinary Teaching Hospital team removed the zip tie and did what they could to save the penis, but “unfortunately, after every attempt, it was concluded that he had suffered from penile necrosis due to strangulation of the organ.”
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The organ couldn’t be saved, but thanks to the extraordinary skill of the UGA team, Nelson’s urethra was redirected to save urinary function.
“It was horrific,” HSNEGA shelter manager Garrett Williams told Fox 5 Atlanta. “In my 11 years of working in animal welfare, this is one of the worst cases of deliberate animal cruelty that I have seen. It is shocking that any human could be capable of inflicting this amount of pain on an animal.”
Allison Mayfield, CEO at HSNEGA, shared, “I literally laid on the floor of my office with him for hours in tears. I could never imagine why someone would do that to such a sweet boy.”
“We want people to know that animal cruelty is a very real thing, and we are going to fight with everything we’ve got.”
The Road to Healing Will Be Long
While Nelson has been rescued from the cruelty inflicted on him, he still has hard work ahead because “even the simple act of urinating is agonizing for Nelson, so he will need extensive care and pain medication until he has healed.”
But through the months of healing ahead, the kind hearts of HSNEGA will remain at his side. And though the pain he suffered came at human hands, “Nelson’s love for people remains.”
Click here to see the full extent of Nelson’s injuries or donate to his recovery.
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Feature Image: Humane Society of Northeast Georgia/Facebook
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