Dog gets prosthetic leg after gang abuse

ISTANBUL

Pay de Limon is walking with two front prosthetic legs at the shelter. REUTERS photo

A dog who had its front paws cut off by callous members of a Mexican drug gang is able to play and run once more after being fitted with prosthetic legs, Daily Mailhas reported. The sweetly-named Pay de Limon (Lemon Pie) was discovered whining and bleeding in a dumpster after its run-in with heartless criminals in Mexico City in 2011.

A year on the plucky pooch has recovered well thanks to the efforts of the Milagros Caninos (Canine Miracles) rescue center in the Mexican capital, which raised almost 4,000 to pay for Pay de Limon’s new legs. The founder of the rescue shelter claimed Pay de Limon’s horrifying injuries were the work of criminals using the dog to ‘practice’ the torturous treatments dished out to kidnap victims by members of Mexico’s notorious drug cartels.

“Pay de Limon had the misfortune of running into an organized crime group and they used him to practice cutting off each one of his paws, like they do when they cut fingers off human beings that have been kidnapped,” Patricia Ruiz told Reuters.

Kidnaps are a regular occurrence in Mexico, with victims snatched by drug gangs to try and extort money from their families, or sometimes to be forced into working for the cartels.

The mutilated dog was brought to Milagros Caninos after being found abandoned in a dumpster by passersby in the Fresnillo district of Mexico City.

Staff at the rescue shelter worked to nurse Pay de Limon back to health, and raised more than $6,000 in donations to pay for the prosthetic limbs that would allow him to walk again.

Moulds of Pay de Limon’s legs were sent to a company in the US.