Local Animal Shelter Nurses Severely Burned Stray Back To Health, Animal Cruelty Suspected

April 19, 2012 - PRLog -- Animal cruelty is an overwhelming national problem. The city of Philadelphia is no exception. Far too often, local animal shelters have seen the poor souls affected by these terrible acts of violence. For Operation Ava, a Northern Liberties no-kill animal shelter, the latest is Dotty. Dotty is a bull terrier mix that Operation Ava nursed back to health and prepared for adoption.

Dotty's story as we know it began on January 17th. An unknown citizen brought Dotty to Animal Control after she was found wandering the streets of Philadelphia in terrible pain. Her back was covered in severe burns from what seemed to be a caustic chemical. Her burns were so severe that she was immediately brought to the Pennsylvania SPCA so that she could be given medical treatment. Operation Ava decided to take in Dotty, along with a group of other dogs that needed continuing care. Once Dotty was stabilized at the SPCA, Operation Ava brought her to the Save-A-Life Center to continue her care, treat her for an upper repertory infection and clean her wounds daily to ward off infection. "Although Dotty's treatment was painful, she was a model patient-almost as if she knew we were there to help her", notes Ray Little, Operation Ava's rescue coordinator. Although Dotty’s injuries are suspected to be from animal cruelty, no police report was filed because there were no leads for the authorities and no witnesses to this suspected heinous act of cruelty. No owner of Dotty has ever stepped forth to claim her.

Unlike many animals that have endured unspeakable cruelty at the hands of humans, Dotty's story will have a happy ending. She’s now in good enough health that she is ready to be adopted! Four months later, she has shown herself to be a typical 6-month old puppy and loves getting attention from the staff and volunteers. Operation Ava is unsure whether the hair burned off from her accident will ever completely grow back, but some growth has occurred on the perimeter of the wound.
Despite her struggles on the street, her attitude is upbeat and she remains a very sweet girl. On April 15th, 2012, Dotty was adopted by a great, loving home. Operation Ava is happy to announce that Dotty will now get the compassion and love that she, and all animals, deserve.

Operation Ava began when then 9-year old Ava and 12-year old Lexie Gutierrez, both caring girls who have a passion for helping sick and homeless animals decided to make a difference. In July 2009, they visited a local animal shelter and were touched by the large number of sick, homeless and unwanted animals at the shelter. This visit opened their eyes to the growing reality of our times-millions of animals are in need of help and many never get it. One day after Christmas in 2011, Operation Ava reached a milestone - 1,000 adoptions.

Operation Ava’s mission is to provide life-saving rescue and medical assistance for dogs and cats and the families that care for them. The rescue has three primary goals: 1. to provide foster, rescue and adoption services through their Save-A-Life program, 2. To help less fortunate families afford the necessary medical care for their sick pets and 3. To educate kids of all ages on the issues facing homeless, abused and neglected dogs and cats.

Here is Dotty's adoption video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyfxqjl0dc



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Operation Ava is a no-kill animal rescue located in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia. Their mission is to provide life saving rescue and medical assistance for dogs and cats and the families that care for them.