Owner believes adopted dog came from Sask. breeder facing cruelty charges
When Jasmine Streisel adopted her mastiff, he was malnourished and covered in mange.
Now, she believes her new dog— named Arlo—was one of 12 canines seized by animal protection workers from a Saskatchewan dog breeder now facing animal cruelty charges.
Streisel adopted Arlo when he was ten months old, a month after he was seized and brought to the SPCA.
According to her veterinarian, Arlo was extremely underweight and his mange was caused by lying in his own feces and urine for a long time.
"Our vet said it was probably one of the worst ones that they've seen," she said of Arlo's mange.
"He didn't get a lot of food … he had a potbelly because he was so starved."
Arlo's legs seemed weak when they adopted him and he had to learn how to run, she explained.
He would cry often at night and was always hungry.
Streisel says the SPCA told her when she adopted Arlo, he was seized with 12 other dogs.
"They couldn't really give us a lot of information though, because of the investigation," she said.
She said they took the information from the SPCA, and the dates matched a mastiff seizure on a rural property near Preeceville, Sask.
She said Arlo looks exactly like the photos of dogs on the breeder's website.
Arlo weighed under eight kilograms when they first adopted him, but now weighs twice as much.
His growth, however, is permanently stunted. After a long treatment regimen, they finally got rid of his mange two weeks ago.
"The thing I'm worried about the most is the fact that [the breeder] has so many dogs," said Streisel.
"Obviously Arlo wasn't getting as much food as he should've been getting, and I don't know how you would even, for one person, take care of that many dogs. I don't know how you'd take care of each of their needs."
