MY NAME WAS BOBI…
This is a story of years of dog neglect which resulted in great physical and mental suffering of the dog and, ultimately, his death.
After the terrible earthquakes that hit Croatia on 28th and 29th of December in 2020., a lot of volunteers and associations went to help those in the affected areas, including their animals. Since the epicenter was in Petrinja and Sisak, which is a rural area, there were a lot of animals – from dogs and cats to livestock, and they all needed help.
The most disturbing case of all was the one about the 17-year-old dog Bobby, who was microchipped on a female name (probably the wife of a homeowner), who spent his life on a chain (which is nothing new in this rural area). On January 6, 2021, the FB group of one of the associations from Croatia that went to help the area published a video of a helpless dog tied with a chain around his neck, which was also wrapped around his legs.
The footage shows a skinny and physically exhausted and tortured dog, lying in the dark on the ground in front of the owner’s house occasionally whining, visibly ill and in a state of severe pain and suffering. In the recording, male voices are heard talking to a dog owner who says he is 17 years old, has not eaten for days and is just lying down because he cannot get up.
The footage was seen by one of the biggest associations helping animals in Croatia S-PAS and the volunteers went to the address of the owner who agreed that they take the dog away which they did and after they moved him to the car, they left for Zagreb on January 7th, 2021, around 2 am. Bobby whimpered and urinated several times in the car, and he sighed in front of the entrance to the veterinary clinic.
The dog owner did not call G. M. to inquire what happened to the dog. The leading cause of the dog’s death is the terrible neglect he was facing – a chain in front of his house, lying on the cold ground, exposed to bad weather and temperatures around zero degrees Celsius (especially at night), rain and winter cold, fear of pyrotechnics and
earthquakes, and other difficult conditions that further aggravated his poor health and contributed to death. The owner who has left the dog lying on the frozen ground to visibly suffer from being sick, hungry and thirsty, he did not try to bring him into the house to warm him, he didn’t try to feed him, he did not seek veterinary assistance for the dog or assist him in any way to shorten his physical and mental suffering.
This case is not over. Association from Croatia, called Prijatelji životinja filed a criminal complaint against the owner and a they are still waiting for the response. We will keep you posted about development.
