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Severely Sunburned Dog Found with Skin Falling Off
Chunks of Bloody Skin Hanging Boxer Mix's Head, Back
 Construction superintendent Wade Gardner went to work Wednesday only to be greeted by a horror show.
He and another superintendent arrived at the midtown site, at the corner of North Dodge Boulevard and East Hardy Drive, to find a
bleeding dog cowering in a dirt trench.
Chunks of bloody skin were hanging loose and missing from the 2-year-old boxer mix's head and back.
'At first, we thought it got hit by a car,' said Gardner, 47, who works with Gilbert-based Niche Contractors Inc.
Gardner and his co-worker filled a hard hat with water for the dog and then called the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
That's when they learned the dog was suffering from severe sunburn.
The Society found a piece of rope still attached to the dog's neck, as if he had been tied out and chewed through it to get out of sun's relentless rays.
'This is a really dramatic example of how animals, like people, can burn,' said Marsh Meyers, outreach director for the Humane Society.
'A common misconception is that animals have fur and it's going to protect them.'
Tie outs have been illegal in Pima County since the mid-1990s, Meyers said. They can be especially deadly in the summer.
 'A lot of animals are found after it's too late,' Meyers said. 'Field officers tell me it's a grotesque find. The molecules that hold the tissues together starts to disintegrate in the sun. Literally, the skin starts sloughing off right in their hands.'
Meyers said tie-out complaints are second only to the 15 to 20 calls monthly reporting animals left in hot vehicles in the summer.
Pima Animal Care Center responded to 6,991 animal welfare calls last year, a large number involving tie outs, said manager Kim Janes. 'Tie outs are one of the predominant calls we get,' Janes said. 'It is unfortunate and it is scary.'
In addition to being exposed to the blasting sun, tie outs can snarl an animal, rendering it defenseless; knock over the food and water bowls; or even hang an animal if it tries to jump a fence to get away.
The misdemeanor penalty can be elevated to a felony if the animal suffers severe injuries or dies as a result of being tethered outside, Meyers said.
No owner has come looking for the boxer.
Meyers said the dog, which the Humane Society staff has named 'Bobcat,' is recovering very well.
Bobcat is on pain medication and antibiotics while his skin recovers, Meyers said. The dog will not be available for adoption until his wounds are fully healed, which will take at least several weeks.
Gardner, an avid animal lover who grew up with horses and dogs and currently has one dog and a cross-eyed cat, is toying with the possibility of adopting Bobcat.
'I gotta check with the wife first,' he said, referring to his spouse of 26 years.
His dog, a Queensland heeler named Mocha, lives outside but not on a tie out. Mocha has an outdoor dog house, plenty of shade and her own pool she lets humans use sometimes, Gardner said jokingly.
'I'm a third-generation Arizonan,' he said. 'I know all about the heat. I just wish people would be more conscientious about their animals. I don't understand how anyone could tie up a dog in the blazing heat.'
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