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Dog with severe tail injury seized, owner cited

Posted at 4:57 PM, Dec 20, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-20 18:45:35-05

An Omaha man is fighting to get his dog back who, the Nebraska Humane Society says, was very underweight and had a gruesome injury.

NSH had been keeping an eye on the dog for a couple of months before deciding to seize it from the home. The owner says he was trying to get it treatment.

Animal control officers and a veterinarian say an 11-year-old Boxer/Pointer mix named Budah was emaciated and had an exposed vertebrae in his tail. Court documents say he was seized Dec. 8 from a home near 25th and Lake streets.

His owner, Jerry Savala, says he's been feeding Budah a lot but that the dog won't gain weight, and the tail injury is because he had been chewing on it a lot since they moved about 5 months ago.  He says Budah was on antibiotics for his tail after taking him to a vet.

"And the tail — she's chewing it off like I said. They didn't want to wrap it with a dressing because he would chew the dressing off; he's a dog. They said the only option they have was to put a hard cone on him but he'd be miserable; he wouldn't be able to eat, he wouldn't be able to do that. The vet let me leave," Savala explained. "It was the vet who told them to come take my dog. So I was like, 'Why did you tell them to come take it when i did what you told me to do?' I changed his diet — they wanted me to change his diet to put more weight on him — bought more expensive food than I normally buy for him.  Did everything that they want me to do."

NHS cited Savala with Animal Cruelty — Care and Maintenance because Savala was incapable of giving the animal proper care and hadn't seen improvements.

The NHS said the dog's weight is doing better, but the tail had to be amputated.

Savala will be in Douglas County Court this week requesting that Budah be released from impound.