The problem was the 10-year old Mastiff wasn’t able to Ԁie. She was struggling to remain alive in her “grave”, hoping someone would spot and save her from certain Ԁeath.
Luckily, animal lover Pedro Dinis, was walking his own dog, a pit bull, through the empty lot where the Mastiff was buried.
He noticed something protruding of the dirt and when his pit bull reacted he stopped to possess a better look.
What he saw froze him. it had been a dog’s head barely visible within the mound of dirt. Noticing that the dog was still alive, Pedro and his dog quickly got into action to save lots of the mastiff.
The mastiff, which Pedro named “Athena (after the Greek Goddess of War) had managed to free her head presumably because she was buried pretty shallow within the building site.
As Pedro acknowledged while digging to rescue the dog, Athena wasn’t ready to fully free herself because she was anchored into the bottom by her leash which was tied to an important bag of rocks.
The owner had obviously wanted to form sure his dog didn’t shake the hell hole!
Pedro found the mastiff, covered in dirt, was weak and dehydrated, indicating that she must are buried a couple of hours ago.
It was a case of being at the proper place and therefore the right time. Athena stayed calm, possibly due to Hell bull’s presence, as Pedro carefully removed the dirt and stones to free the mastiff from her would-be grave.
“Only her head was visible and it had been difficult to ascertain given the quantity of earth covering her,” Pedro wrote on Facebook, adding that he was “in the proper place at the proper time to save lots of a life.”
Pedro didn’t want to harm or panic Athena by employing a shovel, so used his hands to scoop away the dirt. As he worked to free her, he made bound to feed Athena many water so as to rehydrate her.
Finally Athena was free! But she was too weak to maneuver .
Pedro took her to a veterinary clinic where she was treated for shock and dehydration with intra venous fluids.
The veterinarian also discovered that there have been ample signs that Athena, which was afflicted with arthritis, had been subject to lifetime of abuse.
After treatment, Athena was taken in by the animal rescue, SOS Dogue De Bordeaux. within the months since her rescue, Athena was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Delfosse, the founders of the rescue where she found comfort and happiness, pending the court case against the owner.
As Athena had a permanent identification, the authorities were ready to trace her owner who was living shortly from the building site in Paris where the dog was buried alive.
The dog’s owner, a 21-year-old Frenchman, tried to urge off the hook by claiming that his dog had run away and denied any knowledge of what happened to his dog.
With Athena’s story capturing the minds of social media followers, who petitioned for max sentencing of two years in prison also as about $33,000 in fine be imposed on the owner for c.r.u.e.l.t.y to animals, the French court banned the Frenchman from owning a dog for five years, fined $33,000 and given an 8-month suspended prison sentence.
As for dog’s saviour, Pedro said he shared the photos of Athena’s rescue to boost awareness about animal c.r.u.e.l.t.y.
A few months after the owner was convicted, Athena gave up the ghost peacefully under the loving care of her adopted family.
