ST CLAIR, Mo. — A dog in St. Clair, Missouri was found neglected and abused, but she's not the only one.
"You can see her back bones, you can see her ribs, she had fleas crawling all over her face, she had ticks embedded in her ears everywhere," said Mandy Ryan, the president of Missouri K-9 Friends as she explained the conditions of Claire.
She's a boxer mix who has tick-borne illnesses and is only 38 pounds when she needs to be 60.
Claire was found at 2000 Sycamore Lane in St. Clair. "There was another dog from the same property that was emaciated that was out of the trailer," Ryan said, "and we tried to catch it and it was too scared to come up to people."
That's when the non-profit rescue Missouri K-9 Friends stepped in. "It looks like this person is breeding dogs for a while and they've been neglected for a while," Ryan said.
She said these two dogs are just a glimpse of what's been happening to several pups living there. "There are several dead dogs behind the property and this has been a particular problem for this trailer on this property."
Missouri K-9 Friends is working with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to investigate so that more dogs aren't abused or forgotten.
"The owner's identification is a little wishy-washy right now and we are trying to pinpoint who's exactly responsible at this time," Ryan said. "We're going to build a case for neglect and abandonment."
If you have any tips on this case, here is an e-mail to reach out: Missourik9friends@gmail.com
If you'd like to donate to the organization, the money will go to help the dogs, like Clair, for their treatments. Just click this link.