Big Chief gets to bark another day

A LOCAL animal shelter this week fought to save a dog that is believed to have had its skull split open with a panga.

Pet Pals animal shelter founder Sue Kriel said the dog, named Big Chief, had come into the shelter after he and a companion puppy were picked up by a woman based at the Fleet Street police station.

Kriel said that while the wound from where the panga had struck had healed, the dog had lost his right eye. She said the hole where his right eye had been was a festering sore, that had swollen to the point that it was pressing on his brain.

“I’ve been getting calls about a dog walking around with his face open since about July last year, but we couldn’t catch him,” said Kriel, who estimated Big Chief had been walking around with the massive gash in his face for about a year.

“Can you imagine how much pain he must have been in?”

After picking up Big Chief, Kriel said he was immediately put on a course of antibiotics. His eye socket has since healed, but Kriel said he would need an operation to permanently close the hole where his eye had been to prevent further risk of infection.

Despite the mutilation to his face and left ear – which had also been cut off – Big Chief is in good spirits and is incredibly friendly.

Kriel said he was an “extremely loving dog, and plays with anyone”. Kriel said the shelter aimed to rehabilitate traumatised and abused animals, and find them the “best forever home”. —