Neglected Great Pyrenees Freed From Barn and From 35 Pounds of Fur

When rescuers first laid eyes on Lazarus the dog, his fur was so overgrown he looked more like a wooly sheep than a dog. He had been trapped inside a barn for who knows how long and the barn was so filled with feces that the door was blocked.

“This poor dog is a 6 to 7 year old Great Pyrenees. He has spent his entire life contained in a small barn stall filled with 6 or 7 years worth of feces,” Big Fluffy Dog Rescue writes. “You cannot imagine the squalor in which this dog lived and there are no words adequate to convey the horror.”

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“The person who owned him simply threw over his food and water to him. Conditions were so awful they had to shovel feces to even be able to open the door to get him out,” Big Fluffy Dog Rescue continues. “Not once before this picture was taken has this dog walked on grass or seen the sky above him.”

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The dog’s rescuers were two dog groomers who had been called by a concerned neighbor who told them that Lazarus’ owner was terminally ill and had asked for Lazarus to be removed.

After freeing Lazarus, they shaved his overgrown coat – all 35 pounds of it.

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Once his heavy hair was gone, Lazarus had to get used to walking without the extra weight.

Here’s a video of Lazarus after his haircut.

Years of confinement and the heavy fur have taken their toll on his body. “Under all that fur, he has a broken tail, some tumors we will be checking out, and he is wobbly on his feet, but he is happy and I have great hopes for him,” Big Fluffy Dog Rescue says.