Puppy faces life of blindness after being saved from being drowned by a backyard breeder

An animal rescue organisation is fighting to save the remaining eye of a puppy rescued from a backyard breeder who tried to drown the litter. HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP.

A puppy who was rescued from being drowned by a backyard breeder has undergone urgent eye surgery to save her from a life of blindness.

Four-month-old Shar Pei, Luna, was one of five puppies brought into the Gold Coast-based Precious Paws Animal Rescue group weeks ago as an emergency intake from a backyard breeder in northern NSW.

Tracie Kachel, from Precious Paws, said the not-for-profit organisation was contacted by a woman in Maxville, NSW during the floods in March.

“I got a call from a lady who was really distressed. She said her neighbour is a backyard breeder and he was about to drown the litter,” she said.

While the lady managed to save one puppy, two others were saved by another person nearby and Precious Paws managed to take five.

It is understood the breeder drowned three other puppies from the litter.

Luna is now living with her carer on the Sunshine Coast. Picture: Lachie Millard

Ms Kachel, 58, of Tamborine, said she believed it was possible the breeder had interbred dogs and was drowning the offspring because of their health issues.

Luna was five weeks old when she arrived in South East Queensland and was given to a Sunshine Coast-based foster carer.

A Chinese breed, Shar Peis are known to have a number of health issues, particularly with their face wrinkles effecting their sight, but Luna’s situation became dire because one of her eyes “exploded” from an infection.

Ms Kachel said the possibility Luna would go completely blind increased after the dog’s remaining eye also became infected.

“The same thing then happened to the eye that’s the problem, but to a lesser amount. She was rushed to emergency and the vets were wonderful, they got a specialist to come from Brisbane to Sunshine Coast,” she said.

Luna's eye after her urgent surgery. Picture: Supplied

Although the operation on Luna’s second eye was expected to cost up to $10,000, Ms Kachel said the veterinarians capped the price at $6,500 knowing Precious Paws would be copping the bill.

“We don’t care what it costs, if it needs to be done, it will get it done. Then afterwards we’ll go crazy and do the Bunnings sausage sizzles and do what we can to raise money,” she said.

A GoFundMe online fundraising account, titled Please help to save Luna’s other eye, has been started with $1950 out of a $3500 goal raised to date.

Ms Kachel said puppy farming is becoming an increasing issue around South East Queensland with backyard Shar Pei breeders usually getting up to $1,500 for a puppy.

“It’s about money. In a litter of nine or ten, that’s big bucks. A lot of them don’t get vaccinated, they interbreed them, they don’t desex them. They’re just after the money, it’s mostly those sellers on Gumtree,” she said.

Luna with her sister Winnie who was also rescued. Picture: Lachie Millard

A fortnight after her surgery, Luna can now only see shadows, but Ms Kachel has faith the young dog will persevere.

“We’ll have to keep her in care for some time, but if she does go completely blind we will adopt her out to a person who has Shar Pei experience and knows what a blind dog goes through,” she said.

“We’ll do everything we can. They were puppies, they were helpless, they had nobody. We were in an emergency situation where they were going to die if we didn’t step in.”