“It is absolutely shocking how anyone could leave an injured dog to suffer in the freezing cold and torrential rain.”

The ISPCA is appealing to the public for information about a severely injured dog discovered tied to a gate near the National Animal Centre in Longford on Sunday evening (10 November). A young German shepherd/Akita mixed breed dog with a severe injury was found chained to a gate beside the entrance to the ISPCA’s National Animal Centre on the main Lanesborough to Ballymahon road in Longford at around 8pm on Sunday evening. An ISPCA staff member rushed the dog to a local veterinary practitioner for emergency treatment, where it was sedated and pain relief was administered. The condition of the dog was confirmed as critical. An image of the dog can be seen below but readers should be warned that some may find it upsetting. The ISPCA said that some of the images taken of the dog were too graphic to distribute. The dog was scanned for a microchip in an effort to trace its owner but unfortunately it was not chipped. “It is absolutely shocking how anyone could leave an injured dog to suffer in the freezing cold and torrential rain. The dog must have been in excruciating pain,” said ISPCA Chief Inspector Conor Dowling. “We would ask anyone with any information on the origin of the dog, how it came to be injured or on who left it tied to a gate to make contact with us as a matter of urgency. Someone must recognise this unfortunate animal,” Dowling added. Anybody with any information is asked to contact the ISPCA National Animal Cruelty Helpline in confidence on 1890 515 515 or report online here.