Emaciated dogs belonging to evicted owners found abandoned in Miramar
MIAMI - It's a story of survival and second chances for two dogs found abandoned in Miramar.
"We received a call for help for these two dogs," independent dog rescuer, Marianela Arteaga, said.
She said the two dogs were abandoned last Thursday when their owners were evicted.
Five days later, on Tuesday, King found a way out.
"He's the one that was barking at everyone around, and the neighbor was wondering what's going on? That dog is barking too much," Arteaga said. "He was barking at her, but not barking to attack. He was barking like to come and see something."
King led the neighbor to his brother, Prince who was too weak to walk. The two were emaciated.
"That doesn't happen in five days," Arteaga said. "They state that they were in, especially the brown dog, that doesn't happen in five days. They were starved to death by their own owners."
From the moment rescuers arrived, King stood over Prince protecting him. The video shows King putting his paw on Prince's head as rescuers tried to lift Prince up.
"He's the one that was grabbing the other one by the neck and pulling him out like looking for help for him," Arteaga said. "It was amazing. I mean to see that bond, I wanted to cry."
Arteaga called I Heart Animal Rescue. Even though they are at capacity, Cindy Mucciaccio didn't blink twice.
"I'm like, we'll figure it out later," Mucciaccio said.
Mucciaccio arranged for both dogs to go to Knowles Animal Clinic. That's where King is cuddling up to people and giving kisses. He still trusts humans. Prince is already walking again, but his battle is far from over.
"They had just told me that when they took the X-Rays, they see that he does have some metastasized, it looks like that he has cancer throughout his body and it's already gotten to the lungs," she said.
"Who knows how long the dogs were there," she added, and not only that, not even to know, or even if they knew, that this dog was full of cancer. It's horrible."
Mucciaccio said they've never seen dogs being abandoned in high numbers like this.
"I've been doing this for eight years, and I have to say this is the worst year yet," she said. "I get at least 20 phone calls a day. 'Oh, two dogs are tied up in a park, there's dogs on the side of the highway', people are just letting them out."
And to keep helping more dogs, they desperately need fosters and adopters. They also need donations.
"If you find a dog, and you can find a place for it, I will pay to fix it, to microchip it to get it shots, to get medical, anything that it needs, as long as it has a place to go," she said.
As for what's next, the rescue groups said that they are trying to get a hold of the landlord so they can figure out who the tenants are so they can file a police report.
