His name is Earl... and he's lucky to be alive

By KATHY BOCKUS
kathy@stcroixcourier.ca

ST. STEPHEN – Earl the dog is going to look like he’s had a head transplant.
At least that’s what veterinarian Dr. Trevor hall told Earl’s owners, Sharon Caswell and John Harding, of Oak Hill, before he took the nine-month-old puppy into surgery to repair a deep gash around Earl’s neck caused by a wire snare.
The snare, fashioned from thick wire cable, had cut about two centimetres deep into the neck flesh of the shepherd-husky mix after the animal became caught up in the common trapping device.
The wire was still embedded in Earl’s neck, with the end dangling free where someone had cut him loose, when the dog showed up on his owner’s doorstep after having been missing for two-and-a-half weeks. He was happy to see his family, but was emaciated, his neck bloody and torn. Caswell estimated the animal has lost about 30 pounds. Mayfield Veterinary Clinic vet technician Tricia Richardson said Earl weighed 51.2 pounds when he went into surgery and confirmed his drastic weight loss appearance.
“How could someone do that to an animal? If you’re going trap, be responsible, check your traps,” said an angry Sharon Caswell. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen done to an animal.”
Earl was rushed by his owners to the clinic shortly after he turned up on their Oak Hill doorstep Friday. Dr. Hall scheduled immediate emergency surgery.
“He’s lucky the wire didn’t sever his jugular vein or his windpipe,” said the doctor as he finished cleansing the deep wound and began to stitch up the flesh.
“It’s going to sting… when he comes round,” said the doctor as he worked, adding that besides antibiotics to fight possible infection, Earl will also be given painkillers.
Hall said snare traps should be outlawed.
“Snaring should be banned. It’s inhumane,” he said.
“This guy was just galumphing along and the next thing you know he has something sawing through his neck. What if it had been a child?”
Veterinarian technicians Richardson and Heather Sweeney assisted in Earl’s medical care before, during and after surgery.
Sweeney showed off the large wire cutters that they had to use to cut through the heavy, multi-strand wire embedded into the dog’s flesh.
“This is tiny,” she said as she reconstructed the loop.
“The more he struggled, the tighter it got.”
“I can’t imagine the pain he went through,” said Richardson, who added that the wound on Earl’s neck smelled “putrid” before it was cleansed. Richardson said she was amazed the dog survived so long in all the rainy and cold weather. She said the pup was so skinny his hip bones and ribs were sticking out. Richardson speculated the dog survived because he was in such good shape, had a thick coat and a strong will to live.
Caswell said she had given up hope that Earl would ever return.
“I gave away a new bag of dog food to my son just Thursday night,” said Caswell.
Her son, she said, laughing, has returned the bag of food.
She was sitting at her computer the next day around noon when she looked out the window into the yard and saw Earl.
“I was so excited. I didn’t see the snare on him at first,” said Caswell. She brought the dog inside and then noticed this “thing” on his neck.
“I tried to cut it off, but there was no room to put the pliers in.”
Caswell described the dog’s neck as covered in blood.
“I knew it was digging in. I felt so helpless, but Earl was being just as sweet and loving as he ever was.”
The couple has searched long and hard for Earl, calling for him, driving around the area, visiting neighbours, and putting an advertisement on the local radio station.
They figured since he was so friendly, he’d either hopped into someone’s car or that he had adopted another family, just like he had adopted them when he showed up on their doorstep in the middle of the night when he was about three months old.
“It never even dawned on me that someone would have a snare,” said Caswell.
Caswell admits she knows dogs shouldn’t run in the woods and said Earl normally doesn’t leave the yard. The worst thing for her, while Earl was missing, was not knowing what had happened to him
Earl is now resting comfortably at home, healing from his ordeal.
“He’s being very quiet,” said Caswell.
“It’s going take a while for his spirit to get back to what it was. The wound is healing well and he’s eating a lot. We’re trying to get him fattened up again. I brushed him good. He’s happy to be here.”
Caswell said she and Harding didn’t get much sleep over the weekend. Every time they hear Earl move, they check on him.
“We watch him like a hawk,” said Caswell, explaining they want to make sure he doesn’t scratch all those stitches in his neck.
Caswell said she and Harding are going to talk with the Department of Natural Resources to see if they can get any information that might lead to identifying the trapper who snared their dog.