Dog Gives Birth to 5 Puppies After Getting Shot in the Face and Nurses ‘Those Babies When She Could Barely Breathe’

The Brown County Humane Society believes the dog, named Mercy, was shot weeks before she gave birth

NEED TO KNOW

• An Ohio humane society found a dog and her five newborn puppies abandoned by the side of the road on Aug. 28
• The “mama dog” named Mercy was shot in the face and had multiple bullet fragments lodged in her head and neck
• She underwent surgery and is recovering as the shelter seeks information about the apparent animal abuse incident

An Ohio humane society found five newborn puppies on the side of the road with their mother, who was initially believed to have been hit by a car. It quickly became clear, however, that something far more nefarious had happened: the mother dog had been shot in the face.

Brown County Humane Society was alerted to the wounded “mama dog,” who appeared to have been “dumped in a crate on the side of the road while she was in labor,” on Malblanc Road in Winchester, Ohio, on Friday, Aug. 28, the shelter said in a Facebook post.

Flies swarmed around her and her litter of 5-hour-old puppies, who were “cold, wet, bloody, hungry and still covered in afterbirth.”

“Mama had nursed them, but she didn’t have enough strength to clean them,” the organization said.

Meanwhile, the new parent, whom the humane society dubbed Mercy, was emaciated, weak and struggling to breathe, with wound abscesses on her swollen face and mouth.

Mercy had “been out there for hours” with her pups before she “managed to struggle toward the road,” where someone spotted her.

All six dogs were transported to Rolling Hills Veterinary Service in the nearby village of Bethel. There, it became apparent through examination that the source of the mama dog’s face wounds was not a car accident, as was initially believed, but gunshots. She also suffered a fractured jaw and fractured bone under the eye, the humane society said.

“We thought she had been hit by a car. She hadn’t,” Brown County Humane Society said on Facebook. “She had been shot in the face. And it hadn’t just happened. The vet believes she may have been living like this for a week or more.”

“This dog possibly lived for a week with bullets in her face, emaciated and struggling to breathe, and then gave birth to 5 puppies,” the humane society said. “And through all of that she still tried to take care of them. She nursed those babies when she could barely breathe herself.”

Then came the X-rays, which revealed that there were multiple bullets and bullet fragments in Mercy’s face and head. The veterinarian could not safely remove the piece “causing the worst damage and affecting her breathing,” the humane society said on Sunday. 

Mercy was treated with medications — including antibiotics, steroids, pain medication and IV fluids — that made her unable to feed her puppies, who were bottle-fed as a result, the Ohio organization added. The new mom was scheduled for surgery to remove as many of the bullets and bullet fragments from her head as possible on Monday, Aug. 31.

In an update shared on Facebook on Monday, the humane society said that through surgery, some of the bullet fragments were removed from Mercy’s head, but not all of them, as “some are lodged in bone, and there are tiny pieces throughout her head that just can’t safely be removed.”

But Mercy “made it through” the operation and was awake by the time the post went up. Her breathing was also “much better” on Monday morning, the humane society said.

“We still don’t know how much her breathing will improve or what the long-term effects of all of this will be. Time is really going to tell us that,” the organization wrote in the Facebook update. “But today she’s awake, she’s eating, and she’s breathing better. We’ll take that.”

“And she got to see her babies before surgery. I think we all needed that part,” the humane society said, and shared pictures of Mercy near three puppies on a dog bed. 

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As Mercy continues to heal, the Brown County Humane Society is asking for donations for her medical care and for any information about who injured the dog.

“Tips can be called into the Brown County Dog Shelter at 937-378-3457 or sent privately through our Facebook page,” the humane society said. “Someone knows something. Please help us find out who did this to Mercy.”

PEOPLE has reached out to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office for comment.