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That’s what veterinarian Janice Wilson Haines testified to on the stand in Trenton Municipal Court yesterday.
"He appeared to me to be in excruciating pain. He was so afraid and pained that we couldn’t handle him. We had to anesthetize him to treat his wounds," Haines said during direct questioning by Prosecutor Reed Gusciora.
"He had a lot of red weepy, bleeding wounds and scabbing across his back and down his legs. I thought it looked like a chemical was poured on his back because I saw drips in his wounds."
Haines said the dog’s wounds were between two and five days old.
The dog’s owners Ruth Koch and Eric Pullen are on trial for not providing the dog with the proper care and face a possible $3,000 fine and between one to six months in jail each if convicted.
The pit bull was seen, injured and starving in the parking lot of Capital Health System Mercer by then emergency room nurse Dawn Tucker on April 22, 2004.
Tucker testified that she lured the skinny but gentle pooch into her car with a peanut butter cookie.
"First I fed him and then took him to a 24-hour emergency vet in Langhorne, (Pa.) We named him Peanut," Tucker said.
When news of the dog’s plight got out, donations were pouring in from all over the country to cover the cost of his care, she said, which totaled $24,000.
Peanut’s recovery at the hospital took a month, Haines said, before he was adopted by Amy Musumeci, of West Chester, Pa.
Gusciora then put Brian K. Jenkins,an officer with Trenton’s Bureau of Animal Control on the stand.
He testified that he received a tip from an unidentified person that the dog’s owners lived at 444 Rutherford Ave., located behind the hospital.
When he went there he saw a dog cage in the kitchen and signs that a dog was there.
"I then went to where the owners moved on Brueing Avenue," Jenkins said.
"They said ...on May 20, 2004 ...they owned the dog ...but that they lost the dog on April 22, the day they moved. They said they lived in West Trenton. "Why look for the dog?"
"I charged them with not providing veterinary care ...because they had the dog a number of days and didn’t take him to a vet while he was in their care."
Pullen’s defense attorney Andrea Salmon asked Jenkins on cross examination if the couple told him that another family member, named Marlin Baldwin, injured the dog.
"I don’t know who injured the dog," Jenkins replied.
He said he only charged them with not providing care not for the injury.
Stuart Goldman, an animal cruelty investigator with the New Jersey SPCA testified that he was called into the investigation.
He said he issued the couple a disorderly person complaint for failure to provide the dog the necessary sustenance.
"These people had custody of the animal when the injuries occurred," Goldman testified.
"This was an act of omission. I issued three citations, one for April 19, April 20 and April 21 (the days while the injured dog was in the custody of the couple) based on the expert testimony."
It was then that Koch’s defense attorney Arthur Swidler wanted to know if there was a report available on the investigation.
One was handed to him and Judge Paul D. McLemore continued the trial so Swidler could review the report.
The new trial date is Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 3 p.m. in the Municipal Court located on Clinton Avenue.
It’s the second time the case has been continued.
"It’s very frustrating. It’s very hard to hear what happened to the animal," said Musumeci.
"We need to make a big deal of this because if they can do this to a dog, what would they do to a child?"
