Hooch The Dog Got His Tongue Ripped Out And Ears Hacked Off

This is Hooch, a French Mastiff who was rescued by Marley’s mutts in California, USA. Now he stays at San Joaquin Vet Hospital, where he is being well taken care of and surrounded by people who does their absolute best to help him.

Hooch was taken from the Bakersfield Shelter in a bad state. Except from having his ears recently chopped off (not cropped, but butchered) he was severely malnourished, dehydrated, suffered from a terrible Upper Respiratory Infection, broken tail and had several lacerations around his mouth and what they first thought to be a broken or dislocated jaw. Since he had such struggle to eat and drink they took an x-ray of his mouth. That’s when they made the horrifying discovery, Hooch didn’t have a tongue… Not even a stump…

The vet and rescuers believe Hooch was used as a bait dog, and his tongue had been pulled and cut from his trachea.

“I can’t imagine the pain he has been through or how he has survived up to this point,” Skow posted on the Marley’s Mutts website. “Dogs need their tongues to perform a variety of essential actions such as eat dog food, drink water and PANT – dogs don’t sweat and rely on their tongues to help regulate temperature.” 

Thankfully things are looking better for Hooch now, he has a feeding tube to give him nutrition and three days ago he managed to get some fried food by being feed like a baby bird. And later with kibble, one at a time. So things are looking better for him but it will be a long road to wander. Despite what Hooch has endured and lost, rescuers say he hasn’t lost his heart. “It tugs at my heart to think that somebody could do this to this poor dog,’ said Andrea Bertolucci, who works at the San Joaquin Vet Hospital. “He’s such a sweetheart and he just wants to be loved.”   Here is a link to 23ABC when Hooch is in the news.

So what is a bait dog? “Bait” animals are animals used to test a dog’s fighting instinct. The snouts of bait dogs are wrapped with duct tape to prevent them from injuring dogs being trained for fighting. Their teeth are filed and their nails are cut until nothing is left. Everything to stop them defend themselves.. Other animals, such as cats and rabbits, are also reported to be used as bait animals. A young dog with fighting injuries, it’s spirit broken, it’s soul destroyed. – Photo from here

Hooch was lucky to be saved and by getting the love and help he so badly need. There are so many more dogs out there who is not lucky enough to be rescued, but instead endure horrible pain in the last minutes of their lives. Dying alone with no one who cares….

We need to help them, stop this horrible torture!

To find out more about Hooch please visit Marley’s Mutts and here is a link to his donation page to help him. (Goes to Fundrazr, you can also find their link at Marley’s mutts) Also I leave you the link to Marley’s Mutts You-tube channel here.

Although mostly illegal in the world, dog fighting happens in every country. Every day, every hour a dog is tortured and left to die…

The photos on this page are from Marley’smutts, please visit them and find out more about their amazing work!

Related articles

• Bait dog found with hundreds of wounds (wishtv.com)
• Animal rescue officials: Bakersfield dog mutilated (kget.com)
• Man accused of dragging dog behind vehicle, fighting dogs (wave3.com)
• Dog-fighting survivor Misty’s ‘pawtographs’ to raise money for abused pets (nj.com)
• 30 dogs seized in police raids (bbc.co.uk)