I don't think it's a sad story anytime animals are rescued from a bad situation. It's sad that it happened, true, but would have been sadder if the relatives had not notified the authorities.
My observation has been that animals that make the news generally have good outcomes. It's the ones that get bypassed while the focus is on the newsmakers that touch my heart.
We recently had a case here where a woman turned in all her dogs after her husband died. He was running a 'mill' and she couldn't handle it on her own. Over 100 dogs were seized, with 80+ being pups. It made the news and there were lines around the block at the Humane Society with people wanting a cheap pure bred pup. They were all adopted in 1 day. Of course, the dogs that were already at the shelter were overlooked and didn't fare so well
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Just goes to show that things can be done if it makes the news...it's just sad for the ones that don't.