The French Mastiff’s owner decided that he no longer wanted the dog, so he looked for the most effective, simple way to get rid of her. He left her to die after burying her alive in mud and stones.
The issue was that the 10-year-old Mastiff couldn’t d.i.e. She was fighting for her life in her “grave,” hoping that someone would see her and come to her aid.
Fortunately, animal enthusiast Pedro Dinis was passing by the empty area where the Mastiff was interred with his own dog, a pit bull.
When his pit bull responded to what he saw sticking out of the dirt, he stopped to have a better look.
He was rendered speechless by what he witnessed. It had been a dog’s head that was just just discernible in the dirt pile. Pedro and his dog acted immediately to save the mastiff after noticing that it was still alive.
The mastiff, whom Pedro dubbed “Athena (after the Greek Goddess of War),” was buried very shallowly within the construction site, which is probably why she was able to raise her head.
Athena was partially anchored to the ground by her leash, which was attached to a significant sack of boulders, as Pedro recognized while working to liberate the dog.
Evidently, the owner had wanted to make sure that his dog didn’t shake the crap out of him!
Pedro discovered the mastiff, who was coated in mud, weak, and dehydrated, indicating that she had likely just been buried a short while earlier.
Being in the right place at the right moment applied in this situation. Pedro painstakingly removed the soil and stones to delicately liberate the mastiff from her intended burial while Athena maintained her composure, perhaps as a result of the presence of Hell bull.
Pedro posted on Facebook that he was “in the right location at the right time to save plenty of a life,” adding that only her head could be seen because of how much earth was covering her.
Pedro used his hands to scoop up the soil since he didn’t want to use a shovel for fear of hurting or frightening Athena. He forced Athena to drink a lot of water as he labored to release her in order to rehydrate her.
Athena was at last liberated! However, she was too frail to move.
She was given intra venous fluids to treat her distress and dehydration after Pedro brought her to a veterinary facility.
The veterinarian also found that there were numerous indications that Athena, who had arthritis, had been mistreated throughout her life.
After receiving treatment, Athena was taken in by the SOS Dogue De Bordeaux animal rescue. Athena was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Delfosse, the founders of the rescue where she found solace and happiness, in the months following her rescue, while the legal action against the owner was underway.
Since Athena had a permanent identification, officials were able to find her owner, who lived not far from the Paris construction site where the dog had been buried alive.
The dog’s owner, a 21-year-old Frenchman, attempted to escape responsibility by saying that his dog had escaped and denied knowing what had happened to the animal.
The French court banned the Frenchman from owning a dog for five years, fined him $33,000, and gave him an eight-month suspended prison sentence after Athena’s story captured the attention of social media users. These followers had called for the maximum sentence of two years in prison as well as about $33,000 in fine to be imposed on the owner for cruelty to animals.
As for the dog’s rescuer, Pedro claimed that he posted the images of Athena’s recovery to raise awareness of animal cruelty.
Athena passed away painlessly while being cared for by her adopted family a few months after the owner was found guilty.
