These are 6 three-week-old wirehaired pointer puppies. Their mom was found running the streets of Oakland and was rescued by an Oakland police officer who brought her to Oakland Animal Services. Mom was lactating and had obviously recently given birth. We were very worried about her puppies but no one came to look for mom . . . until six days later when her owner came into the Shelter and stated the dog belonged to him. He had purchased her to breed and sell puppies. We asked him where her puppies were and he told us that they were three weeks old and that he was feeding them. Per Oakland Municipal Law, mom could not be released to him until she was spayed and we told him that he would need to bring in her babies to reunite them with her.
He did not return that night so Animal Control Officer Frede went to find the puppies. After investigation, Frede was able to rescue all of her babies. They were extremely thin and the ends of their tails were raw and open from having been docked — it looked like they had been removed crudely with scissors. Frede returned to the shelter with the puppies and placed them with their mother. They were screaming with hunger which terrified and stressed their mom. Even after suckling, they were still hungry since mom’s milk had already begun to dry up in the last six days. We bottlefed all of the puppies and, thankfully, Animal Control Officer Strong took four of them home to bottlefeed. Strong had a long night of bottlefeeding very fussy puppies.
We contacted Pound Puppy Rescue who found a long term foster for all of them. We thank them for their help in making a happy ending in a long and stressful story! The owner of the mom and puppies has surrendered all of them and we have submitted a crime report against him.
