4 Tortured Pups Soaked in Hot Tar Were Left to Die, but They Survived Against All Odds

Imagine the kind of person who would torture a puppy for sport. Although it seems impossible for anyone to be so completely evil, evidence from Romania seems to suggest that such people are indeed out there. When animal rescuers from the Sky Foundation in Iasi, a city in the northeast of the country, heard about some injured puppies, they had no idea what kind of shape the dogs would be in.

What they found was worse than anything they could have imagined. Four puppies were lying on a road in the hot summer sun, having been deliberately dipped in burning tar.

Four tortured puppies covered in hot tar and left for dead https://t.co/Is7uwrbsOs pic.twitter.com/gWjw84SOxI

— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) July 26, 2016

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time that the animal welfare activists had had to deal with a case of animal torture. Far from it. In fact, the Sky Foundation was founded in part to respond to the barbaric practices of abusing and harming dogs for amusement.

When they found the tarred puppies, the foundation’s director, Cătălin Pavaliu, told The Daily Mail, “we’re starting to think there’s someone in the city who does these kinds of cruel acts on purpose.” Thankfully, veterinarian Sorin Puiu was able to get to the dogs in time.

Puiu managed to get almost all of the tar off their fur and skin after using painkillers to help the dogs with the horrible pain that burning pitch had inflicted on them. As the shocked and angered vet told the Daily Mail: “one of them had a particularly tough time. He had his left eye, his nose and his mouth all covered in tar. We could really use some kind of animal police institution right now.”

Despite the obvious evidence of torture, the local police did nothing to intervene. The animal welfare advocates at the Sky Foundation have became all too familiar with this pattern of animal abuse and the Romanian authorities’ neglect.

As the Daily Mail noted, the country has become infamous for its animal abuse epidemic after U.K.-based charity Paws2Rescue brought attention to the thousands of dogs they had seen with evidence of deliberate torture, including dogs having their legs chopped off with axes and others buried alive in freezers.

The Sky Foundation has been able to use the outrage generated by such incidents to raise money and make sure the four tarred puppies got the help they needed and eventually find loving families who would take care of them and give them another chance at life.

The Foundation worked tirelessly to find homes for all the dogs, and their recovery was nothing short of miraculous! For Miky, the dog who was most severely tarred, there were serious doubts about whether he would ever be able to see again. However, after a lot of care, the Foundation was able to announce on their Facebook page that “Miky can see perfectly with both eyes, which a month ago would have been a wild dream for the most optimistic of us.”

The recovery did not diminish their desire for justice, however. As they wrote, calling for continued donations: “please help Sky Foundation carry on its wonderful activities in a country filled with hatred and total disregard toward animal life, they receive no support from the authorities.”

Through the great work of the Sky Foundation, these puppies have their lives back. Hopefully, their story will turn the tide on the tragic abuse and neglect that prevails in far too many places.