Two severely neglected dogs were pulled from the filthy basement of a Bronx apartment building after being abandoned in conditions rescuers described as heartbreaking.
NYC Second Chance Rescue said it saved the dogs Friday after the building’s new superintendent found them living amid their own urine and feces. The rescue has since named the pair Ren and Stimpy, a nod to the 1990s animated series.
“We don’t know how they survived this long,” the organization wrote in an emotional social media post about the discovery.
Although the dogs are now safe, rescuers said their recovery is only beginning and both animals face a difficult path ahead.
Photos shared by the group show the dogs with patchy, matted coats. According to the rescue, they are suffering from numerous open wounds, infections and infestations of maggots and fleas.
“One of them is suffering beyond words. He is so severely matted that maggots have burrowed beneath his hair and are eating away at his skin. He is being eaten alive,” NYC Second Chance Rescue posted.
The building’s superintendent told the rescue team he was “devastated” when he came across the dogs in the basement.
He told NYC Second Chance Rescue that the animals had been left there by the building’s previous superintendent, who abandoned them after becoming terminally ill with cancer.
Rescuers rushed the two to an emergency hospital, where veterinarians worked hard to save the pups’ lives.
The group said the two dogs continue to be at risk as of Saturday evening, and that Stimpy was in an incredibly vulnerable condition.
The poor pooch had to be sedated before vets could shave off all his matted hair, which had wrapped tightly around his leg and began to cut into it.
“How do you love an animal and then leave them to suffer like this? We will never understand,” the group said.
