Community rallying to help dog recover

GALAX, Va. (WDBJ) - Chance, a pit bull dog, is recovering after being found severely underweight.

“When they picked him up, he was 26 pounds,” Waggin Train Owner Jennifer Roberts said. “He’s a lot better than he was. Now, he’s doubled his weight since he’s been here.”

Roberts says a healthy pit bull should be in the 70 pound range.

Carroll County Animal Control seized Chance from his owners home in late December.

Since then he’s been staying at the Waggin Train in Galax.

“It was approximately 20 to 25 pounds underweight very skinny, bones very prominent, hips, back, shoulder, top of the skull, very emaciated,” Carroll County Animal Control’s Terry Woods said.

“I would say it’s fairly common, especially the hidden cases and those are the ones that you want to get a hold of the most because they suffer and a lot of them die a bad death and it’s not fair to them because they don’t deserve that,” Roberts said. “They don’t choose to live where they’re where they’re at.”

Roberts and her daughter Chesney have nursing Chance back to the happy dog he is now.

“When I heard about chance I saw the picture and loved him instantly,” Chesney Roberts said.

That love and attention has gotten Chance back to stable condition.

“What you see is what you get, he’s happy,” Jennifer Roberts said. “He loves to be with people. He loves other animals he’s playful.”

Now that Chance is back to a healthy weight, he’ll be flying to New York soon to join Out of the Pits, which focuses on pit bulls

“He just loves to be loved and that’s the biggest misconception is that they’re bad dogs and, and they’re not, because if anybody had the opportunity or the right to be a bad dog, it would be him just because of the misfortunes he’s had in life,” Jennifer Roberts said.

Copyright 2023 WDBJ. All rights reserved.