A puppy that was brutally beaten in a southern Alberta town last month is well on its way to finding a loving family.
According to the Calgary Sun, dozens of people have inquired about giving Lucky -- a blue heeler/border collie cross severely injured, allegedly at the hands of William Daniel Goyette -- a forever home after he was brought to a Turner Valley vet clinic last month with three broken legs and a broken jaw.
“We have a lot of people showing interest in the dog, in the span of four hours I’ve taken about 40 calls,” Jill Aschacker, with Diamond Valley Veterinary told the Sun earlier this week.
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The 12-Week-Old Puppy
Alberta SPCA originally looked into the case on March 13, but because of the severity of the injuries RCMP was asked to take over the investigation..
They found the dog was punched, kicked and thrown up to five feet.
Dr. Wayne Steiger told Metro Calgary the young dog is living up to his name.
“He’s doing well. He’s just starting to walk again,” said Steiger.
Metro reports Lucky will face physical therapy over the coming months and may live with a foster family until he is ready for adoption.
However, the clinic says the dog is shy to anyone wearing a cowboy hat - likely because Gyoette often wears one.
The Calgary Herald reports Goyette brought Lucky to the clinic the first time when the dog was eight weeks old with a broken tibia and fibula in his back leg. Goyette told the vet the dog had gotten tangled in chicken wire.
“It’s unlikely you’d see a complete fracture of those bones by being tangled up,” Steiger told the Herald. “We went ahead and put a cast on it and made sure the owner was going to be more careful with him.”
Weeks later, however, Steiger said the clinic received calls the puppy was being abused on a ranch west of Turner Valley.
According to the Herald the dog's "eyes were bloodshot, and his head was so swollen that his nose blended in with the rest of his face and he resembled a polar bear."
Goyette is due to appear in Okotoks provincial court on April 12.