Dog rescued from squalid rural property gets new life in Dallas

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Dog rescued from squalid rural property gets new life in Dallas

02:07 PM CDT on Friday, April 24, 2009
By RICHARD ABSHIRE / The Dallas Morning News
rabshire@dallasnews.com

Finney is a lucky dog.

The Great Pyrenees mix seems to find everything to his liking these days except car rides.

Car rides and trips to the groomer weren't the only things that Finney missed out on in the first nine years of his life.

He was one of 61 dogs and more than 100 other animals removed from dismal conditions in what authorities believe was a breeding operation on a rural property in Van Zandt County in January. Remains of animals were also found, many in such bad condition that Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals staff and volunteers could not accurately tally the dead.

Criminal charges are pending against the man officials say was responsible for the animals.

"The case was unusual because there were so many deceased animals on the property," said Maura Davies of SPCA of Texas, which operates shelters and clinics in Dallas and McKinney and serves 11 counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.


The SPCA of Texas still has 21 sheep, five goats and a rabbit up for adoption.

They found homes for the rest of the animals, including the remaining 50 dogs.

And that's where Shelley Roberts and Alvin Skelton came in.

The couple live in Far East Dallas with five dogs, four of them rescues.

"I just knew I was looking for a larger dog, a Great Pyrenees ideally," said Roberts, who works in sales. "I need a big dog."

She and Skelton, a DeSoto firefighter, found Finney at the SPCA. He looked terrible, his long, white fur a tangled and matted mess.

"Their fur naturally is 5 or 6 inches long," Skelton said. "He'd probably never had a bath in his whole life."

Most of the dogs seized were Pyrenees or mixes, and Finney was the oldest male. Considered a senior dog at his age, he may have been the patriarch of the pack.

SPCA of Texas, which is funded almost entirely by donations and service fees, helped more than 13,000 animals in 2008. That's down from 15,900 in 2007, but still a lot of animals that need homes.

Davies applauds Roberts and Skelton and the hundreds like them who have adopted SPCA animals.

"We love our adopters," Davies said. "People who give an animal a second or even third chance at life deserve a special kind of halo."