*Warning: An image below may disturb some readers, especially tiny humans.**
Meet Manny, a four-year-old mutt who’s thrilled to call Buffalo home. He was flown in from Cartagena, Colombia on March 21st to meet his new pet parent, writes post.bark.co
But before that, the poor pooch was tortured and almost died beneath the sweltering sun on a beach thousands of miles away from Upstate New York.
Here’s the story of his pan-American rescue:
Several months ago, Maureen Cattieu, founder of the nonprofit rescue group Cartagena Paws, stumbled across Manny on a beach in Cartagena. Someone had scalded the dog’s face with hot cooking oil, slashed him with a machete, and left him for dead. Cattieu immediately got Manny to a vet and gave him the TLC he needed to heal. But he still needed a “furever” home.
That’s where Anne Darmstedter came in. Though Cattieu and Darmstedter had mutual friends from rescue organizations in the Buffalo area, they didn’t meet until going to a Christmas party last year. After that, Darmstedter saw a mutual friend post about Manny on Facebook. She was hooked.
She told The Buffalo News:
”I read his story and I was just glued to it. It’s just so horrible that people can be so horrible to animals.”
Six weeks ago, Darmstedter, who owns two other dogs, posted a comment saying she wanted to adopt Manny. Her friend got her in touch with Cattieu to initiate the adoption process. While Darmstedter waited for Manny to join her in Buffalo, she mailed him a doggie bed.
Once the adoption process was finalized, it took Manny more than two days to get to Darmstedter. On Saturday, he was flown from Cartagena to Bogota. On Sunday, he went from Texas to Newark, New Jersey. By Monday night, he was safe and sound in Buffalo.
Manny isn’t the first dog to be rescued by Cartagena Paws. Cattieu says she founded the organization after witnessing multiple instances of animal cruelty and abuse toward street animals. Please consider donating to their organization if you can, and if you’re interested in rescuing one of their street pups, go here street pups.
