"A Voice For Gracie"

One of our volunteers found a dog almost drowning in a ravine in Avondale Estates Sunday (08/17) evening. When the volunteer got the dog out of the water she saw a huge hole in the dog’s foot, it was obviously broken, and a hole on her back and side. She would not move her back legs, and thought she might be paralyzed. The dog just looked at her in the sweetest way, not an aggressive bone in her body. She was rushed to our ER vet, given meds for the pain and x-rayed. As it turns out she did not fall in the ravine and hurt herself.  She was shot in the back, side and leg and most likely thrown in the ravine to die. She was operated on immediately to remove all the broken and shattered bones in her leg, back and side. We had no idea how long she had been laying in the dirty water.

AAR, Animal Emergency Center of Decatur, & The Village Vets-Decatur, desperately tried to save this girl, unfortunately, Gracie went downhill a couple of nights after rescuing her, lost all reflexes and feeling in both back legs, and in general was beginning to suffer. Evidently there were serious internal and spinal cord injuries. Sadly, we had to make the decision to let her go and not let her suffer any longer. We are just thankful that she didn’t die a slow, painful and lonely death, had pain management and a volunteer was with her to say goodbye. She was lovingly buried in the volunteer’s backyard with a few other special pets that have crossed the rainbow bridge.

However, Gracie’s fight is not over! We are now working with the DeKalb Animal Cruelty Investigators to find her killers! Channel 2 (wsbtv) has agreed to cover Gracie’s story and we have opened a “A Voice For Gracie” fund account that is strictly going towards a reward to catch the low life(s) that murdered her. Even though she is no longer with us we are going to continue her fight and WE are now her voice.  

UPDATE: The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has just announced they are donating $2,500.00 to Gracie's reward fund! A very big thanks to Judy Landey (who was moved by Gracie's story and took action) and Cheryl McAuliffe, Georgia State Director, The Humane Society of the United States for making this happen!

So please send around this email to help donate towards the reward fund. Folks can use the paypal link and just designate it as “A Voice For Gracie” reward fund. All funds will be transferred directly into her account.

http://www.animalactionrescue.org/donate.htm

Or you can contact Decatur First Bank about direct donations:
1120 Commerce Dr., Decatur, GA 30030, (404) 373-1000‎
www.decaturfirstbank.com

We are extremely grateful to all of the vets that helped Gracie, the wonderful people who generously donated, the investigators that are trying to find her killers and to WSB-TV for helping us give Gracie a voice! To view Gracie's story on WSB-TV, click here.

And especially, if anyone has any information or recognizes this dog, please email: avoiceforgracie@animalactionrescue.org