Bear, says the University of Illinois vet who treated him, is resilient, says Maureen McMichael, the University of Illinois vet who is treated him, but not for want of his attacker’s efforts. The lab mix has a long list of brutally inflicted injuries including shotgun pellet wounds and a broken jaw.
The dog was discovered April 20, tied to a bridge near Sibley. Ill., mouth taped so his whimpers could scarcely be heart. Despite the horrific experience, staffers said he was eating canned dog food and responding well to human interaction.
Sheriff Mark Doran of Ford County, where Bear was found, reported that an investigation had identified potential suspects, though at press time no arrests had been made due to a lack of witnesses.
“I’m a dog lover,” Doran told the Peoria Journal Star. “Believe me, we are working hard on this.”
The county’s Animal Control Warden, Darrell Foster, was called to the bridge when a resident walking his own dog discovered Bear on the bridge. Reports indicate the dog was tied so his paws could barely touch ground, mouth taped, severely injured.
“The person (who did this) obviously is sick,” Foster said.
A local campaign has raised more than $15,000 to help cover the cost of treating the dog and a number of people have volunteered to give him a home, said Angie Cleary, who works at Gibson Veterinarian Clinic and initially helped treat Bear.
“We talked to the specialists today,” the GoFundMe update read, “and they decided that Bears jaw is broken in so many places that a surgery will not be able to fix it, but the good news is that if we give him time it may heal on its own. His jaw will never be back to how it was before and he might never be able to eat hard dog food again but he should be able to heal and enjoy wet dog food.”
To find out how you can help, visit Bear’s GoFundMe page at this link.
