Puppies Found 'Dumped On Side Of Road' In Need Of Aid

TACOMA, WA — The Humane Society of Tacoma & Pierce County is calling on the community to help out as it tries to save the lives of several puppies recently found abandoned in South Tacoma.

According to the Humane Society, a good Samaritan found and recovered seven puppies who had been dumped and left for dead at the side of the road on Oct. 2o. The seven puppies were rushed to the Humane Society, where vets quickly discovered that all seven were sick with the parvovirus. Parvovirus is a highly-contagious, deadly illness in the gastrointestianl tract— the Humane Society says it caused the seven puppies to be lethargic, some even suffered bloody diarrhea.

The shelter's veterinary team rushed to give the sick puppies emergency medication, fluids and other critical care. Unfortunately, four of the puppies were too sick to carry on, and died within three days. The surviving three puppies still have a chance to pull through, but the Humane Society says it will as much support as the community can muster.

"Donations from the community are urgently needed to help provide medical care for the remaining puppies as they battle the virus," the shelter said in a statement.

24/7 supportive care can cost thousands of dollars per puppy, the Humane Society says, so they've launched a donation drive seeking support to help their vets give these sick dogs another shot at life. Donations are currently being accepted on the shelter's website, but the Humane Society says the community can also help out by adopting healthy dogs currently staying at the shelter.

"Adopting a dog not only provides a needed forever home, but it also provides space for the shelter to help more animals, just like these puppies," the Humane Society said.

To make adoptions as painless as possible, the shelter is cutting all adult animal adoption fees by 25 percent through the end of the month.

The Humane Society says it has seen over a dozen cases of the parvovirus this year alone. Just this July, the shelter put out a similar call for aid when four parvovirus-infected puppies were found abandoned in a Tacoma gravel pit. Because the community rallied to help those puppies, all four ultimately made a full recovery and have since been adopted out to new forever homes.