Pueblo – Animal service officials in Pueblo have received at least 30 calls from people offering to adopt a severely abused puppy found July 24 near a trash bin at a Pueblo convenience store.
A store employee found the 7-week-old Jack Russell terrier barely breathing and covered in blue spray paint. He appeared to have cigarette burns or puncture wounds all over his body.
“We want this puppy to make it. It really has tugged at our heart strings,” Donna Straub, director of Pueblo Animal Services, said Friday.
Trooper, as the puppy was named for his ability to hang on, has improved from critical to serious condition. Straub said he can eat and stand on his own.
The Pueblo shelter has started an animal cruelty investigation. The puppy was found in a distinctive red and white dog carrier with black spots. Anyone with information should contact the shelter.
