Named for Carroll County, Mississippi, where she was found, Carroll is a two-year old female shepherd mix who came to In Defense of Animals Hope Animal Sanctuary in late January. This thin, starving dog had been chained to a post without access to food or water and then cruelly abandoned and left to die by an unknown perpetrator.

Carroll is a gentle dog who is friendly with everyone she meets and she walks politely on a leash without pulling which indicates that at some point she must have been trained by people who invested their time and patience in her care, perhaps as a four legged member of their own family. One possibility is that Carroll was perhaps stolen and then abandoned, but we may never know for sure. Sadly, another dog was chained similarly on the property, but did not survive the ordeal.

The property where these dogs were abandoned and left to starve was reportedly located next to one of the many ‘hunting clubs’ found throughout rural Mississippi. The reports of Carroll and the other dog who died came to IDA only after the first dog had already perished in front of the comings and goings of the hunting club without anyone speaking up on behalf of two dogs starving to death before their very eyes. Carroll was finally brought to Hope Animal Sanctuary after it was too late to save one dog and almost too late to save Carroll herself. She came to us weighing just 32 pounds, dehydrated, mere days from death, and testing positive for heartworm.

Carroll is now enjoying life off the chain with her own bed to sleep in and wide open spaces to roam while she begins the long road to recovery. In the next few weeks, she will need to gain 20 pounds of additional body weight, after which she will begin the months long process of heartworm treatment and medication. Once she has fully recovered she will be placed into a loving forever home.