Every now and again a story touches my heart. And today it was this one. The poor dog was so hungry it ate its own foot! Why oh why don't people either feed their pets, or admit they can't cope and call the local shelter? I have a black Great Dane myself, he weighs more than me, I can't even imagine what this poor dog went through, and he's not out of the woods yet.

Starved Great Dane ate own foot to survive

The sick dog is not yet in the clear but those at the animal shelter caring for the canine say they "believe in miracles". Link to article. Link to shelter where he is being treated.

i hate it when stories like this crop up in the news. the only good news is good people have rescued the dog and are taking care of it now. poor thing.

I've heard of animals chewing their feet off to escape traps but this is new to me... Barbaric! Poor dog...

purplethunder3121 said:

I've heard of animals chewing their feet off to escape traps but this is new to me... Barbaric! Poor dog...

I have been following this story since it broke and, to be fair, the rescue charity has now stated that they think he was tied up and chewed his foot off to escape. Of course this does not excuse the cruelty or the fact that this dog is still a long way from recovery. The following is directly from their site:

"I don't believe Luke ate his leg to survive. I believe he chewed his leg off to free himself from the cable that he was tied to. I also think the cable had been on for so long that it had damaged his leg and had swollen around the cable cutting off the circulation. The area where his leg was removed was smooth with clean edges. That tells me, he chewed a leg that had become damaged and painful from the cable to get rid of the pain and to free himself.

Chewing a leg off is not an easy thing to do. Poor Luke had to have been beyond desperate to have done such an act. All of our tests are proving he can eat under normal conditions without any issues. He was tied up and abandoned with no thought for his well-being. The people that did this to him also have children. I hope they were not around to see the kind of abuse that Luke endured. Luke was in this state for quite a long time to have lost as much weight as he did."

[Edited 12/12/18 4:04am]