A stray dog found on the brink of death after becoming stuck in a drum of tar has been rescued and rehabilitated by a charity in Rajasthan.
Asha, as the street hound is now known, was completely glued by the rock solid tar to the metal barrel, which it’s thought she had crawled into for sleep days earlier.
Animal Aid Unlimited arrived to find her unable to move, terrified, hyperventilating and horrifically dehydrated – and has since released a moving video of her dramatic rescue and recovery.
Asha had been completely glued to the metal barrel by the tar, which had gone rock solid
The rescue team from Animal Aid Unlimited could not move her and had to cut open the barrel
A spokesperson for the charity said: ‘The metal drum of tar had almost become a tomb for a beautiful street dog.
‘Encased by tar as hard as rock, she couldn’t move a muscle except to blink, and her eyes were filled with terror.
‘We think she must have gone into the barrel at night to get warm, and that her body heat had melted the tar, making it impossible for her to get free.
All Asha could do was blink as her body had sunk into the tar which had then solidified
Back at Animal Aid Unlimited’s sanctuary in Udaipur, the team poured vegetable oil over the tar to soften it and start to free poor Asha
It’s thought the dog had been in the barrel for several days and was severely dehydrated, so the rescue team provided her with plenty of water
The rescue team could not prise poor Asha away from the tar she had sunk into, even when they removed the top off the drum with metal cutters.
They took her to the charity’s nearby sanctuary in Udaipur, where the team leapt into action to save the stricken hound.
‘Her raging thirst made us realise she must have been several days stuck, head first in the drum with the heat of the sun excruciating as the black drum became hotter and hotter,’ said the spokesperson.
Eventually, she was lifted out of the metal drum that had ‘almost become her tomb’
Once her right side was exposed, her rescuers could see it was covered in burns
It took the rescue team more than three hours to remove enough of the tar to allow Asha to so much as stand
After giving her water to quench her raging thirst, vegetable oil was poured over the rock solid tar to soften it.
Eventually, they are able to lift Asha out of the bed of tar – exposing burns on her right side.
It took the team more than three hours to remove enough of the tar just so that she could stand.
Asha couldn’t look more different now, though, bounding around the charity’s sanctuary
The team at Animal Aid Unlimited named her Asha, which means hope in Hindi
Asha still has scarring and patches of skin with no fur but has made a full recovery
But she went on to make a full recovery and can now be seen bounding around Animal Aid Unlimited’s sanctuary, with just the scars and patches of fur missing a reminder of her traumatic ordeal.
In a message to the charity’s supporters, Animal Aid Unlimited said: ‘We named her Asha, which means hope in Hindi, because against all odds, she wouldn’t give up. And thanks to the strength you all give us, neither would we.’
Animal Aid Unlimited – set up by Erika, Jim and Claire Abrams-Myers 15 years ago after the family relocated to India from Seattle – rescues thousands of animals from India’s streets every year.
It cares for around 50 dogs, 30 cows, 25 donkeys and five pigs who cannot be returned to the street at its sanctuary as well as running education programmes to prevent suffering among animals.
