'This is Auschwitz'

HAYDEN - As Jean Curran drove away from her friend's house Tuesday afternoon, she noticed it, an old, black dog.

It was just crossing the street in Riverside Harbor, slowly, wobbling, ribs showing, shivering in the cold. From its stomach, protruded a massive tumor, dragging on the ground.

"Oh my God," Curran thought. "Somebody has to do something."

So she did.

Curran pulled over, took off her jacket and walked slowly to the dog that eyed her weakly, frightened. But it stopped on a lawn and waited.

Speaking softly, Curran gently covered it with her jacket, picked it up and laid it inside her warm car. The dog didn't resist. It didn't bark or growl. It just rested quietly, Curran said, as if relieved to have a friend.

"I took the chance she wouldn't bite me, because I couldn't leave her out there," she said.

Curran, who owns five dogs, drove to Hayden Pet Medical Center where veterinarian Kendall Bodkin quickly assessed the dog's condition.

He didn't like what he saw.

The tumor was the size of a cantaloupe that could have taken months to grow. The dog's teeth were rotted. Its nails on front and back legs were 2 inches long, curling, making it painful to walk. Its ribs were showing, indicating it had little food. In Dr. Bodkin's Hayden Avenue office, a body condition chart for dogs reads normal is 5. This dog was a 1.

It was, Bodkin would say later, "neglect at its finest. It's one of the worst cases I've seen."

"This is Auschwitz," Bodkin said. "No doubt about it."

The medium-sized, grizzled female dog with flecks of gray, was believed to be a bit of hound, Spaniel and lab, and about 14 years old. It had no collar, no identification.

It would not survive.

"Euthanasia was the only choice I had," he said.

Curran, crying, was angry that someone neglected a dog so severely.

"The only decent thing that happened to her was the little bit of time we could spend with her and pet her while they put her to sleep," she said, fighting to get the words out through tears.

Curran hopes the community rises up to stop such abuse. Somebody, she thought, had to have seen the dog before it wound up in the streets, hungry and abandoned, a victim of abuse.

"There's no excuse. How can you ignore something like that?" she said. "Somebody did this deliberately to this poor creature."

"This is not right. This has got to stop. We need to change the laws in the state of Idaho in regards to animal cruelty."

Karen Williams, Kootenai County animal control officer, is hoping someone steps forward to identify the dog's owner.

"I can't imagine someone somewhere hasn't seen this dog or knows where this dog lives," she said.

Williams said she often sees animal abuse cases. Many, like the dog Curran tried to save, likely suffer for months, perhaps years.

"This didn't happen overnight," she said. "It takes time for this stuff to happen."

Williams hopes people will report it to authorities when they see abused animals. She urged people to care for their pets.

"If you don't have the heart to do what's right, you don't just open your door and let your dog go," she said. "When they've been with you your entire life, you owe them more than that."

Bodkin said a way to stop animal abuse is make the community aware that its happening.

"Citizens like Jean, that's what it takes," he said.

Curran smiled briefly as she talked of when she first saw the dog, put her coat on it and placed it in her car.

"This was probably the only kindness that dog ever saw given to her, was in the last moments of her life," she said. "She was probably grateful somebody came to her rescue."

But Curran's smile faded as she spoke of going home that night, and seeing her five dogs, happy and healthy.

She said she wished the dog she found that day could have known the same love, and been part of a family that cared for her, and received a hug when its owner came home.

Instead, it died amidst strangers who wanted to help, but it was too late.

"I'm going to cry myself to sleep," Curran said, wiping away more tears. "This will haunt me for the rest of my days."