Dog found in wheelie bin could be someone's stolen pet

By Elaine Keogh

A young dog found in a wheelie bin could be somebody’s stolen pet according to the charity now looking after him.

It took nearly three hours for the two volunteers from Last Hope Charity in county Meath to groom the young dog who they think is a cross between a spaniel and a collie.

 “It took two of us working on him to get rid of the matts of hair on him.  The blades would not go through his hair it was so bad,” said Tania Murtagh from the charity.

 She collected the dog, who has been christened Noah, from the woman who spotted his tail in the black wheelie bin in Navan on Monday afternoon this week.

“She told me that she was walking by and saw the bin move.  She thought it could be a rat but when she looked she could see a dogs tail.”

The woman, who is a dog-owner, took him home and then rang the charity.  Tania called to her and said, “The smell from him was horrific and he was covered in matts. There was one hanging off him that was the size of my fist.”

 The matts are large lumps of hair mixed in with dirt and faeces and Tania immediately brought him to another volunteer with the charity who is a dog groomer.

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 “He was so good when we were grooming him. He didn’t move, he didn’t grown, I think he knew we were trying to get the matts off him.”

Noah is not micro-chipped and is believed to be 1-2 years old.  

 Tania is fostering him and says that in the short space of time since he was rescued she can tell that, “Somebody loved him once.  There are no signs he was mistreated physically.  He could have been dumped in the bin or he was there scavenging for food.”

 

“He will sit for you, he will give the paw and he is nearly house trained so I would say he was definitely somebody’s pet at some stage.  There is a chance he could be somebody’s stolen pet.  If only he had been micro-chipped he could have been reunited with them straight away.”