Emaciated dog abandoned on Christmas Day in North Yorkshire 'lucky to be alive'

A seven-year-old lurcher was found injured, collapsed and barely responsive on Christmas Day.

Rosie was found hidden in a hedgerow at Spen Common Lane near Tadcaster in North Yorkshire at about 7.30am on Christmas morning by a member of the public who was out walking her own dog.

She was covered in a purple antibiotic spray which had been used to try and treat numerous puncture wounds on her body. She was so weak she couldn’t lift her head and had to be carried back to the finder’s house.

She was then rushed for urgent veterinary treatment by an RSPCA animal rescue officer, after the animal welfare charity was contacted about the incident.

Rosie was immediately put on a drip and has been receiving round-the-clock veterinary care ever since at a 24-hour animal hospital.

She is said to be making progress and there has been a slight improvement in an infection in her rear hind leg, although it’s not known at this stage if the limb will need to be amputated.

The RSPCA is appealing for anyone who recognises her or saw what happened to get in touch.

James Dack from the RSPCA said: “Rosie was sniffed out by the member of the public’s own dog. She was extremely fortunate to be discovered as it was a quiet country lane and there were very few people around. 

"She had a number of sporadic wounds all over her body and an infection in one of her hind legs which thankfully seems to be responding to treatment. 

"We’re not sure how long she’d been lying there - possibly overnight - but I think she may have succumb to her injuries and the cold had she not been found.

"She had clearly been dumped and left to die. There had been an attempt to treat her wounds with an antiseptic spray, but whoever callously abandoned her has probably thought, ‘she’s injured, she’s on her way out, I’ll just leave her’."

Although Rosie was microchipped to an address in Nottinghamshire, the details were not up-to- date and the RSPCA has been told she was sold to someone in the ‘Wales/Shropshire’ area about four years ago.   

The incident comes at a time when the animal welfare charity is reporting that incidents involving abandoned animals have soared to a shocking three-year high. Already this year, up to the end of November, the RSPCA has received 19,457 incidents, with 1,619 reported last month alone.