Dog with 300 Tumors Wanders into Hospital Chapel

Suffering what must have been unbearable, excruciating pain, an 11-year-old Boston Terrier named Pasha still had the ability and good sense to walk into Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, Calif. She was discovered in a corner of the hospital’s chapel.

Pasha’s little body was covered with 300 tumors. One of her eyes was severely ulcerated. Someone had wrapped a rubber band around one of the tumors, and it had become embedded in her skin.

It’s not known how Pasha ended up at the hospital, but her owner, Mary Sodaro, who lives about 90 miles away in Victorville, Calif., was arrested after she called Newport Beach animal control officers and asked about the dog, the Los Angeles Times reports. She’s been charged with a felony count of animal cruelty,  along with the misdemeanors of failing to care for an animal and allowing an animal to roam freely on a public street.

According to the Orange County district attorney’s office, Sodaro said she’d taken Pasha to a veterinarian recently, but would not allow her dog to be treated. Because of Pasha’s “irremediable pain and suffering,” the vet had offered to euthanize her free of charge, but Sodaro refused the offer.

She admitted she had wrapped the rubber band around a golf-ball-sized tumor on Pasha’s jaw because she thought it would cut off blood circulation and the tumor would fall off. But the rubber band became embedded in the tumor, resulting in a skin infection and even more pain for the already suffering dog.

“The fact that the tumor was rubber banded and continued to grow is disturbing,” Orange County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Malone told the Orange County Register. “The tumor had grown to such a size it affected Pasha’s ability to breathe. We have never seen neglect like this.”

The bittersweet news is that poor little Pasha is no longer in pain. A few days after she was found in the hospital chapel, a veterinarian humanely euthanized her.

Here’s the mug shot of the woman who intentionally let her dog suffer with hundreds of tumors. Sodaro listed her occupation as “Comedian” in the Orange County Jail booking log. How I wish it was a joke that the maximum sentence this monster will get is only three years and a half years in state prison.

SEPT. 6, 2017 UPDATE: Sodaro, who had been immediately sentenced to 26 days in jail, has pleaded guilty to the three misdemeanor charges and will not serve any additional jail time (!). She was placed on three years’ informal probation and ordered to undergo mental health counseling. The good news is that she is not allowed to own, possess, care for or live with a pet.

Dog that wandered into Hoag Hospital suffering from suspected severe neglect dies https://t.co/8dXimHJRpx pic.twitter.com/tAAYTjoLFs

— O.C. Register (@ocregister) August 29, 2017

Photo via Hoag/Facebook