CA: Police officers save dog when no one else would

Police officers save dog when no one else would
January 18, 2013

For hours a brown pit bull lay on a sidewalk while people walked by and ignored him, thinking he was dead. The pit bull had been hit by a car and no one stopped to help until three LAPD officers came along and saved his life.

On January 10th, police officers were headed to the police station when they spotted the dog crumpled up on the side of the road. The officers stopped and tried to give the dog water. That’s when residents informed the officers that the dog had been laying there for over five hours. The residents had assumed the dog had died after being hit by a car.

Police officers took the badly injured dog and placed him in their car. They then drove him to the vet where they were informed the dog had a badly broken leg and two fractured ribs, he needed emergency surgery. The vet also found that the dog had a microchip. The officers assumed his owners must be worried about him and so they went to the address listed on the dog’s microchip. The officers were surprised to find the owners didn’t care and didn’t want to have to deal with the dog’s vet bills. They told the officers to just “put him down.”

The officers could not bear to put the dog down though and were horrified saying, “Excuse me! Repeat that! No way! No how!” They had the owner sign the dog over to them. The dog, named Philly after the officers’ sergeant, was now the officers’ dog. They quickly called the vet and told them to proceed with Philly’s medical care. Philly needed surgery on his leg immediately, it was badly broken.

Philly had surgery to repair his left front leg. The elbow was fractured and the vet implanted an artificial elbow. The vet also discovered foreign matter in Philly’s stomach that had to be surgically removed. The vet removed large plastic pieces and other materials from Philly’s stomach.

Philly’s veterinary bills are piling up, reaching over $7,500 already. Those wishing to help the officers pay for Philly’s care can make donations through their chipin fund. Philly’s progress can be followed on his Facebook page.




Police officers save dog when no one else would | Life With Dogs
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Philly, Our Hero...

Philly entered our lives on January 10, 2013. We were heading back to our station (LAPD Southeast Division) when we noticed a brown pit-bull lying on the sidewalk on the corner of 108th street and Central. We noticed that his ribs were sticking out so we assumed that he was malnourished and needed some food and water. We drove to the corner taco stand to get a plateful of meat and a bottle of water to give to him. When we returned he was in the same exact spot. We attempted to feed him and when he tried to get up to eat, he cried. We looked closer and noticed he had scratches on his torso and that his left leg was swollen. When the public saw us attempting to help him they notified us that he had been lying in the same spot for at least 5 hours. 5 hours!!! We knew we had to do something. We put him in the back of our police car and drove him straight to Advanced Veterinary Care Center in Lawndale. While in the car we had to name him. From that point on he was ours and we were going to save him. So the 3 of us named him after our Sergeant, who is one of the best supervisors you can have. So "Philly" it was. We let him know of his name and he started wagging his tail. Philly was hit by a car and left on the sidewalk for hours and here he was, wagging his tail for us. Philly you are our hero!

When we got to the vet they advised us that he had a severely broken left front leg and he needed emergency surgery. We were also advised that he had 2 fractured ribs. We looked at each other, then the surgeon and then back at each other again and begged the surgeon to work with us. We said we would do whatever necessary to save him and that he deserves a better life. She said ok let's see what we can do.

We waited for what seemed like an eternity when the vet came out and told us Philly was chipped and gave us the owners contact information. Here we are, Police Officers tracking a dogs chip so we can find his owner. We were excited to hear that he actually belonged to someone and they could be searching for him as we speak. We were mistaken! We found the owner and went to their house in person. We let the owner know about Philly, where we found him and the extent of his injuries. We let them know that he needed to have emergency surgery ASAP. The owner responded with "put him to sleep, we don't want to fix him." Excuse me! Repeat that! No way! No how! We had them sign over their rights to Philly on the spot. Here we are, Philly's new foster parents.

This is when we called the vet and let them know what was happening. We said we were going to do this, we have to do this, who could ever turn their back on a great dog like this?

As a team we agreed to fundraise to cover the expenses we would incur. The Vet agreed to work with us and accept payment as the donations came in. Philly underwent surgery to repair his left front leg which was fractured at the elbow. They implanted an artificial elbow that is being held together with screws and pins. During this surgery they noticed that he had some foreign matter in his stomach. They attempted to suction out the contents and were unsuccessful. Because of this, they had to surgically enter his stomach and proceeded to remove large plastic pieces amongst other materials. Philly is recovering and being a strong boy.

We are very thankful to all the support and love you all have shown Philly and will keep you updated on his progress.

How you can help Philly:

By Phone 24 Hours a day by calling:

310-542-8018

Online:

ChipIn: Rescuing Philly

By Mail:

Advanced Veterinary Care Center
15926 Hawthorne Blvd.
Lawndale, CA 90260

*Please mention Philly in all correspondence


You can learn more about the Officers that rescued him here:

Southeast Area Police | Community Relations Office