Animal Allies Loses Lovebug To ‘Worst Case Of Abuse’

Lovebug was a dog whose story captured the hearts and minds of the Duluth community. Starving and emaciated, he was brought to Animal Allies late Friday afternoon. A team of staffers there kicked into emergency mode.

Lovebug being comforted

Nichole Facciotto, Humane Education Manager for Animal Allies said, “His body temperature was so low we couldn’t even get a reading on the thermometer. Was not walking. But when our practice manager arrived he started slowly becoming responsive.”

Lovebug was in critical condition, but for a brief moment, they had hope that perhaps he would recover. So he was slowly given water and small bits of food…careful not to give too much that his body could not process it.

“He was responding to our touch. He really liked like being comforted. And unfortunately, around 1:30 a.m. he just drifted off to sleep and that was that.”

Lovebug’s happier and healthier days

Nichole said in the end, he was not in any pain. “We believe he was finally feeling warm and safe and comfortable, and his body had been through too much for too long.”

Animal Allies says this is the worst case of abuse they have ever seen.

“He was completed covered in sores, soaked in urine, we’ve seen a lot of people mention his coloring seemed different in photos of him healthy vs photos of what we saw. That was urine staining a lot of muscle mass lost. He definitely looked like a completely different dog,” she said.

There has been an unprecedented number of neglected animal cases brought to the facility this year.

“You know there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that we are trying to put together. Cost of living is exponentially higher right now. It could be something as simple as paying your electric bill and being able to afford pet food. ”

Facciotto said for Lovebug, the outpouring of community support has been overwhelming. Animal Allies has received over $14,000 by late Tuesday afternoon.

“We are referring it as Lovebug’s Legacy. Because of him we will have so many additional resources for animals that are going to come in that we can immediately help. We are going to be able to help so many animals and give them the absolute best care possible, and that’s the really special part of this. ”

Animal Allies hopes this story will help to increase awareness and prevent this kind of abuse happening to other helpless animals. They also say Lovebug’s gentle nature and fighting spirit can serve as inspiration to us all.