The painful story of Violet, a white Maltese mix dog from Florida, was recently shown by the Pinellas County Animal Services (PCAS) on their Facebook page.
Violet faced death due to the terrible injuries that her previous owners caused by dying her hair purple with a hair dye made for humans and not for dogs. Violet was found in a very grave condition, she showed burns on her skin, swollen eyes, and she seemed to be fragile and exhausted.
The little dog was treated by the PCAS during three months, facing worst injuries every time they tried to help until she finally got better. Still, the employees from the PCAS and the new owner of Violet, fear she’ll present permanent damage to her skin or eyes.
Then injured and abandoned, now loved and recovered
The little dog was found alone, abandoned with her hair recently dyed purple wandering the streets of Florida. The whole damage still did not show up in his entirety, but just by looking at some specifics symptoms, such as very swollen eyes and some burns on her skin, the members of the crew knew she needed treatment.
According to News Week, Violet presented burns that looked so bad that the staff from PCAS thought she wouldn’t make it through the night; fortunately, and to everybody’s relief, she did.
The sense of worry and the hard work began when they tried to help Violet. First, the purple dye was washed as well as they could manage, but they needed to get the toxic chemical product entirely out of her body just as her fur to understand the magnitude of the damage, so Violet had to be shaved.
As soon as the hair started to come out, the staff noticed that Violet’s skin began to slough off, so they immediately started a treatment to recover the lost skin and heal the burn. Violet had to go through tough situations, the post on the PCAS’ Facebook page explains:
“Pain medication, antibiotics, IV fluids, honey treatments, scab removal, anesthetizing, bandage changes, sleepless nights, worrying, hope, worrying, hope and finally the silver lining.”
All of this translated into a difficult road to get Violet out of danger, but still leaving some worries ahead due to the significance of the damage, meaning the staff and her new owner, a pet groomer, are still concerned with the fact that Violet could develop a skin infection or total blindness.
Express yourself but not in a toxic way
The Pinellas County Animal Services now intends to raise awareness on this matter, explaining that there are many ways to do great makeovers to pets that will make the owners just as happy as the pet itself just like haircuts, nail trims, adding bows or bandanas. But they demand to take care of the companion animals in the best way possible in order to keep them in our lives.
“Express yourself, but please do not use hair dye intended for humans to express your pet’s style. Let’s all say that together – Do NOT, under any circumstances, use hair color intended for humans on your pets. Chemicals in hair dye are TOXIC causing a wide array of external injury to your pet.”
The post also reveals the fact that, as licking itself is an animal’s first instinct, the dye could cause internal burns or even poisoning resulting in death. Then they proceed to tell Violet’s story and also add pictures of the little Dog before the treatment, during and after. The pictures show a very wounded Violet that had to be bandaged and then an even more wounded one with big pieces of skin missing on her body.
The final pictures are the hopeful image of a little dog that had to go through hell to finally found an owner that specializes in professionally beautifying pets.
Animal Cruelty and Abandonment
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals portrays in its Animal Homelessness section that each year, about seven million and a half animals enter shelters around the whole nation, but nearly three million of them don’t make it out. They also add that many animals that come to the shelters have reasons for it that could be completely preventable, just as Violet’s.
On that note, a similar tragic statistic shows up on their Animal Cruelty segment, where they declare:
“Every 60 seconds, another animal is abused.”
In most jurisdictions along the United States, penalties for cruelty are insignificant, usually charged as a misdemeanor offense. Still, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit legal based organization that strives to protect animals’ rights, had and still is campaigning for stronger implementations of anti-animal cruelty laws.
Their job goes from filing lawsuits to giving legal assistance to prosecutors managing cruelty cases to improve anti-cruelty statutes and raising awareness on the subject.
Source: Live Science