Tears as 88lb Dog Too Anxious to Let Anyone Near—'Real Face of Rescue'

A dog who was surrendered to a shelter by her owner and has since been an "anxious wreck" has shed light on the reality of animal rescue.

In a post on Facebook, Mo Chara Animal Rescue in Tipperary, Ireland, shared: "The real face of rescue! This girl was surrendered to us on Wednesday. She has sat in this corner of the run since then."

A German shepherd weighing 88 pounds, Hilda came to the shelter after a local man said he needed to surrender her for personal reasons. However, since arriving, the dog her former owner described as friendly had been a trembling wreck, reacting aggressively when approached.

"She's got really bad separation anxiety and she's absolutely traumatized," Nikki Veasey, volunteer and chairperson at the shelter, told Newsweek.

Anxious dogs may pant, pace, tremble or drool, but these feelings can also lower a pup's threshold for aggressive behavior. While an anxious canine might not be aggressive at heart, fearful dogs can react badly, growling, barking and even biting.

While the rescue is used to pups struggling to adjust at the start, they usually settle within a few days, but it was clear that wasn't going to happen with Hilda.

"I see a dog that has been kept in the yard. German shepherds tend to bond with people, and he's the one that's been feeding her. But she's not been socialized with any other human," Veasey said.

A week later, the shelter had been unable to get into Hilda's kennel to clean it. Staff members made the unusual decision to contact the previous owner who lives nearby, asking him to come in and help move her so they could clean her kennel. However, he refused to come back to the shelter, leaving staff completely lost for what to do next.

"Carita and I are so angry; we cannot get near her to administer even basic care," said Veasey in the Facebook post.

Despite the issues, the shelter remains dedicated to continuing with Hilda's rehabilitation. "The plan going forward is to work with her... to try and get her out of this small run and then we're just going to work with her slowly," said Veasey, but she was pleased that Hilda's story would shed a light on the reality of rescue care.

"There are people out there that have rose-tinted glasses when it comes to rescuing and rehabilitating dogs, and sometimes it's not easy," Veasey added.