Justice: The Lab Mix Pup Burned with Lighter Fluid
Today I was sent this story about a dog named Justice, and it brought forth every emotion possible. Primarily, endless amount of rage, enormous pain and sadness. So why post something as deplorable as this story? For one, in hopes that someone will tip the police and the perpetrators will be arrested. But also to bring awareness that torture and cruelty to animals tragically exists. I do not know what the penalties are in the Dallas/Ft Worth area for this type of crime, but many cities and states do not have strong enough punishments to fit the crimes. Look into the facts in your area and help fight for stricter punishments for acts such as this….
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Warning: A very graphic photo of Justice’s entire burned body included in this post. May be difficult for sensitive readers.
Story posted by WFAA.com in Dallas TX on Tuesday, April 10th. Here are the key parts of the article:
Public’s help sought in case of puppy set on fire in Pleasant Grove [TX]
DALLAS – An animal rescue group has reached out to the public after a 4-month-old lab-terrier was found severely burned last week in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood of Dallas, read a statement released by the organization.
The puppy was found behind an air conditioning unit at an apartment complex in the 1200 block of North Masters Drive in Pleasant Grove last Tuesday night. Witnesses described seeing a group of teen boys trying to strangle Justice with a rope before setting him on fire. A girl who saw what was happening intervened, using a T-shirt to put out the fire, police said.
The puppy suffered second to third-degree burns on over 60 percent of his body. He was transferred to City Vet in Dallas after spending a week in a 24-hour emergency animal clinic in Denton.
Police say those responsible are facing felony charges for torturing Justice.
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Photo of Justice shortly after have been rescued
Photo taken shortly after being rescued before full treatment and surgery. Justice is a 4-month-old lab-terrier mix that was doused with lighter fluid and set on fire as well as being hung by this torturers.
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The follow up reports via DFW Rescue Me (DRW = Dallas/Ft Worth):
Wednesday, April 11 | Good morning!
Good morning!
I wanted to send an update on Justice. He is resting this morning and readily ate for us. We finished treating his wounds around 3 am. He has extensive wounds that will take a while to heal (meaning likely a month or more). He’s hard to treat because his wounds are not concentrated in one area but spread over his body. I took pictures after we shaved, cleaned and derided tissue. He will still lose more tissue over this week and this is to be expected. We will now be sedating him for daily bandage changes. We placed a central line in his rear leg and repeated labwork. He has anemia but this is not unexpected at this time. His albumin is 2.0 which is great for the amount of wounds. He loses a lot of protein through the wounds and his daily plasma is helping him.
Wednesday, April 11 | From Justice’s foster mom:
Justice continues to get the best of care possible. His i.v. delivers 3 different pain medications, so he is heavily sedated. But this keeps the sweet boy as comfortable as possible. In the times that he is more responsive, you can see from the video that he loves any and all attention.
Justice will look worse before he begins to look better. Think of a bad sunburn. It looks so much worse on the 4th day than it did on the first. Now think of a sunburn on steroids and that is the burn that you see on Justice. The dead tissue on Justice will be removed daily, leaving the red angry tissue. But this red tissue is alive and it is the debridements that will encourage the new tissue growth. Justice’s proteins are being closely monitored as well as his blood counts. He has been shaved to better treat the wounds. He has a new central line. He is receiving plasma as needed. We are investigating hyperbaric oxygen therapy and synthetic skin replacement. Everything possible is being done to make sure Justice is comfortable and continues to improve.
People need to understand that this sweet baby is a baby. Four months old. Still has all of his baby teeth. And it is his young age that will work in his favor. There have been many conversations with the doctors on what is best for this puppy. If the vets ever come to us and say that the treatment needs to be stopped, we will all be sad but will know that we are doing what is best. But as long as Justice continues to fight, we will stand with him.
If all of your prayers and good thoughts will produce miracles, Justice will survive.
Thursday, April 12 | A setback:
Update on Justice: We have had a setback in Justice’s prognosis. During a procedure last night, his vets discovered that his entire abdomen was burned worse than previously diagnosed. His vet team is now consulting with Texas A&M Small Animal Hospital (one of the most cutting edge treatment centers in the country) about transferring his care to them. We will keep you notified as to his ongoing treatment status as we know more. He is on pain medication and is sedated during treatments. As a group, we at DFW Rescue Me along with his vets are very sensitive to the amount of pain he is in and his tolerance of the treatments. If at any time the most humane option is to release him from this world, we will do it. Until that point, we plan to fight along with him on his path to a wonderful new life!
Thursday, April 12 | Good News on Justice tonight!
Justice was transported to A&M today. The doctors at A&M have evaluated him and because of the excellent care he has received so far, they have upgraded his condition from critical to stable. He is under the care of the Soft Tissue Surgical Hospital and they are managing his pain and starting to treat the wounds left from the burns.
Thank you again for all of your support, well wishes, prayers and donations. Justice couldn’t get through this without you!
Saturday, April 14 | Justice has passed away:
It is with a heavy heart that we must tell everyone, Justice passed away last night. Everyone here at DFW Rescue Me is incredibly saddened by this sudden news. We were all so very optimistic about his chances for a full recovery and couldn’t wait to see him find a forever home.
Yesterday, after hours of treatment, the doctors at A&M determined he had 3rd degree burns on 70% of his little body. Some of the tissue had become infected and they were not able to keep his blood pressure up. He passed away during the evening.
Now, we can only hope the perpetrators of this horrific crime will be brought to justice and pay the penalty they so completely deserve. The $5,000 reward is still being offered and we pray someone will have the courage to step forward and turn these criminals in.
DFW Rescue Me have been overwhelmed by the response of donations and best wishes for Justice’s recovery. So many individuals and businesses have given to Justice’s recovery fund and sent notes of encouragement – the response has been truly amazing. We are sincerely grateful to each of you. After his medical bills are paid, we will use any remaining donations to establish The Justice Fund. The Justice Fund will be used to provide medical care for other abused animals.
We are planning a memorial service for Justice. When the details are established, we will post them on Facebook and our website.
There really is nothing else I may add to this story. It all speaks for itself. The pain I feel for what this poor puppy had to endure completely tears me apart.
I am a very anti-violent person, however in this case I allow myself to cross my moral boundaries…. Should the police ever capture the cretins that did this, they will hopefully see prison-time. But I hope for more than just time behind bars….
I hope that the most powerful gang in prison are all dog lovers, at least the leader is, and they do the very same thing to these vermin that they did to Justice. On top of that, I hope that the Correction Officer in his unit is a K-9 officer, or at least a dog-lover, too, and kindly looks the other way; have to go to the bathroom; pick his/her nose… I don’t care.
Then and only then will true Justice be served.
RIP my little four-legged friend. The Rainbow Bridge has taken all your pain away.
I do not want to leave you feeling the anger and sorrow that I did, so thought I would include a few adorable puppy photos to hopefully put a smile back on your face.
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My first inclination is to pour gasoline on whoever burned this dog – and then set him or her on fire! Sick evil disgusting filth!
Mine, too. Mine, too. Horrible. Not worthy of being called human because, well… they’re not.
Mine too. I’m not even going to read this post. Just a glimpse of the picture was more than enough.
You don’t have to. It ended up being a tragic end, and they thought the pup was going to pull through. Probably just as well. Even if they were able to save the guy and repair a lot of skin, he always would have lived in pain for the rest of his life. I’m rather surprised they tried to save him to begin with. Sometimes it is best just to say goodbye to a pet – even a stray. Show some love as they depart on their way to the Rainbow Bridge.
I cannot understand how anyone could intentionally inflict such pain on an innocent animal. That’s pscyho sick. Abominable!
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. About the only creature I am able to purposely hurt is a cockroach, oh, and a black widow. We have way too many dogs here to risk them being bitten by a widow spider.
Makes me want to hand in my human card.
Or better yet, revoke the cards of the perpetrators.
That’s it… take away their human cards. You are what human’s are about, they are not. Kind of wish we had a “reject” chute – like in Willy Wonka where the bad egg goes down the garbage chute. Make all humans walk across that and “honk honk! Bad egg alert!” and gonzo!
What makes kids do such things? Are they likely to change as they grow up?
I don’t know why or how anyone can do anything like that. Will they change? Hard to say, but most of them probably will not. Hopefully at least one of them is suffering enough guilt now that it will help him think about things before he acts. Usually in something like this, there is one person who is the biggest bully and is the one to come up with the idea. And the followers are too weak or frightened of the bully leader to say no. Just hope the followers find another path. But the bully leader will probably not change.
It gives them a god-like sense of power and control, and sometimes offers a way to vent suppressed rage and/or abuse symptoms. I know this because of my own past – distasteful at some times. And I worked in Army animal labs as a young teen and have seen … well, you don’t wanna know. That’s what drew me to this article: the burned dog – I thought it was from some animal lab animal (classic case of sub-conscious reading and problems I have). Sad this happened; the perps need some serious punishment and help with their empathy problem.
That is horrible. What is the matter with some people. Those kids need to be found and caught, cause they are obviously disturbed and you can bet it will only get worse if they aren’t caught.
Yes, I agree. Hopefully a kid they don’t like for whatever reason won’t be next.
That’s what I was scared of t
We adopted a rescue dog who had been badly abused six years ago. He is the best little dog in the world. He still doesn’t trust men though. Poor animals. And these people probably have children too.
There’s a good chance they do. If they don’t know, they will eventually.
I’ve worked with so many rescues since I assist with our local women prison dog rescue/training program. And we can tell which dogs have been abused by men. Dogs talk to you all the time, we just have to know how to listen. I would say about 25% of the dogs that come through the program are terrified of the male CO’s (correction officer’s) which is a clear indication that some guy abused them. It’s fascinating (but so sad) in learning to listen to the rescues talk to you and tell you all about their past. Some may only be afraid of a specific person, say a very tall women with long dark hair. So, good indication then that the dog was beaten by a woman who was tall and had long dark hair. Who knows… All was can do is watch and learn from the behavior of rescues. They talk to us, we just have to learn their language.
I have two rescues from that program, a mother/son duo. The pup was just a few months old, so no abuse with him. But his mama was several years old. She is terrified of the garden hose when it’s on. So someone would constantly spray her with a garden hose either because they thought it was entertaining, or because they just wanted to, or to reprimand for some reason, like barking. Gee… negative reinforcement. Let me shove that up your pea-brained ass.
Anyway. I’m rambling. Rescues typically are the best dogs in the world because they’re grateful. They’ve been there and back and appreciate a loving and safe home. Occasionally some are too far gone…. and sadly, they have to go to the bridge. But that’s always a last resort.
That’s so good that you adopted too. I will never have anything but a rescue from now on. If I ever won the lottery I would adopt senior dogs and let them finish their lives with someone who loved them.
Good for you! When I adopted my two, mother and son, she’s older, guessing around 4 at the time. And he was around 3-4 months. Plus with helping with the prison program, I’ve been around a lot of adult rescues – and I rather prefer them to puppies now. Most of the time, they’re fairly house broken for one. Some take more work than others, but as an adult, the instinct to not soil their home has set in. And secondly, they’ve seen the shit and because of that, they become what we call “grateful’s.” So grateful for being saved from the hell they were in that they are the most loving and devoted dog ever.
The only reason I would buy a pedigree now is because I want to show it. I adore Husky’s and have always wanted a show quality bitch to show. And I live in the house now that knows all about showing and winning titles. But…. I don’t have the room nor time for a Husky at the moment. Plus, even though these yards are VERY secure, I don’t think they’re “husky-proof.” Plus, showing a dog for titles is a money pit, and I can’t afford that now.
Could these guys be the perps? Its a long shot but according to the police report WIT 1 not only saw the perpetrator but knew them as “Slim” and “Ohio”. Seems there are two Dallas rappers with those nicknames.
Slim: http://www.youtube.com/user/slimthugthabosstv
Ohio http://www.myspace.com/mihenterprizes
though it seems that “Ohio” has a three friends that call themselves “Slim”. I found this one most interesting as his myspace name is icecold_1982 , which sounds like the kinda guy that could do this. heres “Slim” #2’s myspace…
Slim#2: http://www.myspace.com/icecold_1982/photos/error?error=1
Again the witness both saw the abuse and knew the perpetrators and could identify them if shown a picture. I hope this helps.
I hope the witnesses do all they can to identify the perp’s.
Sickening!!! What that baby had to endure!! They’ll never truly pay for what they’ve done. I think we need more harsh laws and punishment for animal cruelty. I agree with the writer. Anger is very hard to overcome in a situation like this
there are some cruel people today i hope the is justice for justice
Oh god! That poor baby! Its sad but at least he is no longer in any pain. R.I.P little guy!
Last week, a stray dog in our building got run over inadvertently by a reversing car. Its painful howl all thru the night brought many residents out of their bed while some complained about their sleep getting disturbed. Luckily we were able to bundle it off to a hospital for animals run by NGO’s. We hear it is recovering, Thank god it did not have to be put down.
Last week, a stray dog in our building got run over inadvertently by a reversing car. Its painful howl all thru the night brought many residents out of their bed while some complained about their sleep getting disturbed. Luckily next morning we were able to bundle it off to a hospital for animals run by some large-heated NGO’s. We hear it is recovering, Thank god it did not have to be put down.
How wonderful of you to take the dog for care! Thank you!! Everyone is quick to complain but few want to actually do something about it.