Dog Left to die...

HAMILTON–Donna Davison could not believe what she saw in the rear-view mirror. It made her sick.

Standing behind her car on Brant County Rd. 22 southwest of Hamilton just after 7 a.m. was a wet, sand-covered dog – its neck dragged down by a brick tied to its collar with a bolt.

It seems, she said, someone threw the dog in the Grand River to dispose of it but the dog had managed to get out of the water.

It also appears the dog may have had a recent litter of puppies and Davison and the staff at the Chedoke Animal Hospital in Ancaster wonder what may have happened to them.

After working a night-shift as a nurse, Davison was taking the back roads home to Hamilton when she spotted the dog near the river. "I had driven by and noticed the dog along the road was kind of leaning," she said yesterday. "I looked in the mirror and, my God, I saw the brick."

Fighting back the urge to vomit, Davison took the brick off and bundled the frightened animal into the back of her vehicle and headed for the Chedoke Animal Hospital, where she takes her own dog.

Anita Saczyk at the Chedoke clinic says the medium-sized, 5-year-old terrier mix dog they've dubbed "River" after her rescue, is doing well. River's on her way to a new home via the Society For Animal Adoptions of Flamborough.

Saczyk, who volunteers with the society, could not say whether the dog had had a litter of puppies recently, as Davison feared.
The Burlington-Hamilton SPCA is investigating.