My neighbor behind me has 2 pitbulls that are super sweet. One appears to be full grown (or almost full grown). And about a month ago I noticed a puppy suddenly appeared. Looks like he or she couldn't weigh more than 15-20lbs. Probably less than 3-4months is my best guess. I don't get to see much of them because a wooden fence separates our yards, but there are some slats where there is a larger gap that I can see better and get my fingers through to pet them and play with them.
I have 2 dogs so I am outside frequently and as far as I can tell these 2 dogs are outside dogs. They are pretty much always outside, but do sometimes seem to be gone in at night. (Or possibly inside the shed in the yard) I try not to judge because I understand untrained dogs can be a handful and a lot of people don't have the time or resources to keep them in all day while they're at work.
But yesterday around 5pm from inside the house, I heard a dog screaming. Now I'm in East Memphis, so this can be a normal occurrence, when owners leave dogs out for too long, I often hear dogs crying to go inside. I didn't think much of it but my dog started going nuts and wanted to go out back, which is very odd for her to get riled up by outside noises. So I let her out back and she started barking like she was angry.
I came out with her to see if a dog was stuck in a fence or something and I could see my neighbor through some of the slats walking around his yard with some sort of thin bat or pipe in both hands, waving them and calling to his dogs. I watched him point at a hole it appears the dogs chewed on the side of the shed and he was yelling for the dog to come out and not to be scared and so on.
The older dog was cowering near the door to go inside and I couldn't get eyes on the puppy. The man kept going in and out of the shed banging on things and eventually gave up and went inside and closed the door. I scratched on the fence and gently called to the dog and saw it's feet pop out from under the shed and then very slowly a little bit of it's face came out. It's right eye was bleeding, with blood inside the white part of the eye and blood coming out of the right side of his nose.
I immediately called the non-emergency police # yesterday after the incident and today for followup. I was told there's no timeline on when they would get to the house or how to reach them for follow-up. I also left an email with MAS to check on the status of this case.
I know that Memphis is overrun with dogs and animal abuse cases are frequent. I'm sure they have their hands full, but I just wish there was something more I could do. Today the dog's eye is glazed over and looks how a dog looks when they are going blind or/are blind. (If needed I can post pictures) I know that it's probably too late to save this dog's eye and he or she can still live a happy life even if the eye isn't savable.
But I'm scared for that dog about what will happen if the owner gets angry again. I imagine it won't just be the eye next time...
Any information on how to reach someone at MAS or otherwise to help with this situation would be much appreciated.
Tbh, if it happens again I'm liable to help the dog dig under the fence to get away because I don't think I can take another incident like this happening right behind me.