'She Deserves Justice': 2 Women's Fight For A Dog Left To Die

SOUTH HOLLAND, IL — For more than a week, Harleigh Garcia and Kirstin LaRoche held out hope that the lovable fighter of a pit bull who had been abused, abandoned and left alone to die in a South Holland park, would somehow defy the odds and find a way to survive.

Ruth, whom rescuers had named for the area of Babe Ruth Field where she had been discovered unable to walk and severely emaciated, had already lasted longer than expected. She had somehow lived through a surgery a veterinarian said there was almost no chance she would. But just more than a week after a metal chain and dog leash Ruth had chewed through and digested were removed from her stomach, Ruth’s fight ended.

As it did, though, an uphill battle by two suburban Chicago women to bring those responsible for leaving her in that open field to justice began. Now, a month after Ruth died, organizers of the effort are offering a $1,500 reward in an effort to bring justice for Ruth and to collect information that they hope will lead to the identification of Ruth’s abusers.

LaRoche, who lives in south suburban Lansing, knows the chances are slim that those responsible for Ruth’s condition will ever be found or that anyone who knows something will be willing to step forward. Garcia, the director of the Des Plaines animal rescue where Ruth was first brought in early August after being found, is hopeful, too. But she’s also realistic.

“It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” LaRoche told Patch in a telephone interview on Thursday. “But there was no way I wasn’t going to make a poster, put a reward out … She deserves justice. She went through hell.”

LaRoche, whose husband works for the South Holland Park District, first posted photos of Ruth as she had been found on social media. In the post, she asked for immediate help for Ruth, who was found unable to walk and with open wounds so deep that her bones were exposed. LaRoche can’t be exactly sure how long Ruth had been there in that field, but says there is nothing that could have prepared her for the sight of what she discovered when she first laid eyes on Ruth.

LaRoche said she immediately burst into tears when she saw Ruth, covered with flies, dirt, feces and urine. LaRoche and her husband have fostered dogs for eight years, and she says she has never seen a dog in such horrible shape as Ruth when they first saw her. She connected with Garcia after seeking help on social media and then, along with her husband, made the hour-plus drive to Des Plaines that seemed 10 times that long. LaRoche couldn’t stop sobbing as she tried to comfort Ruth, who, despite her condition, continued to wag her tail as she lay in LaRoche’s lap.

As she stroked the only patch of clean fur she would find, LaRoche continued to sob, hoping Ruth would somehow survive.

“For the hell that she went through, she’s the sweetest dog ever,” LaRoche said.

Garcia, who runs Border Tails Rescue in Des Plaines, said that dogs like Ruth should weigh in the neighborhood of 50 pounds. When Ruth arrived at the rescue facility, she weighed around 20. Her body temperature, which should have hovered around 102 degrees, was at 91.

Garcia said that dogs in Ruth’s severe condition are typically found in Mexico, but rarely in the United States. But after LaRoche posted photos of Ruth as she was found in the park, Garcia knew something had to be done. Although her gut told her not to take on another rescue — especially one in such grave condition as Ruth — Garcia knew she couldn’t say no. She did so, however, not making any promises that Ruth would live through the ordeal.

Garcia, who spent two hours a day with Ruth for the week after she survived surgery, has difficulty putting the impact of Ruth’s story into words. Community members donated nearly $15,000 to Border Tails to help Ruth’s cause. After LaRoche and her husband transported Ruth to Des Plaines, Garcia quickly bonded with the dog, but warned herself not to get too attached.

But as she drove Ruth to a veterinarian to get her prepared for surgery, Garcia started a conversation with the dog that was now in her car, trying to assure her everything would be OK.

“You’ve got this, girlfriend,” Garcia told Ruth as she stroked her head, which was stabilized in a plastic cone, according to a video supplied to Patch. “You’ve got a whole army of people behind you. You’re going to live, you have a foster home waiting for you, you have doctors who want you, you’re super popular. Whatever it costs, we got it however long you need. But you’re going to live, OK, Ruth?

“You’re a good girl, and you have a lot of people who love you that are backing you, and whoever did this to you is not going to get away with this. We just need you to fight, OK? You got this.”

Because of the shape Ruth was in at the time of her discovery in early August, rescue workers could not even determine how old she was. In addition to Ruth’s deep wounds and other injuries, an X-ray showed that a metal chain and collar were in her stomach — a result, Garcia believes, of Ruth working to escape from the conditions she was being kept in by her owner. But given her condition, Garcia and LaRoche had to have been dumped in the field and left to die.

A veterinarian put the chances of Ruth making if off the surgical table as “not high”, Garcia said. Almost miraculously, Ruth did.

“Everyone said, ‘OK, she’s going to make it because if she lived through the surgery, that’s a big hump that we had to get over,” Garcia told Patch.

For three days after the surgery, Ruth was unable to eat or drink anything, but remained under constant care. Over the next five days, Ruth showed improvement, and she started to eat while her open wounds slowly started to heal. Garcia posted daily updates on Border Tail's Facebook page as the collection of concerned pet-lovers around the area grew by the day.

The progress led veterinarians to believe she could eventually be released. LaRoche, who has fostered dogs for years, prepared room for another addition at her home, where doctors felt Ruth would recover better.

Inside a bedroom in LaRoche’s home, large letters spelling out R-U-T-H were put into place along with a welcome home banner which was strung across the wall. Above the letters spelling out the dog’s name, a string of red hearts hung in a room where a pair of dog beds were ready for Ruth’s arrival.

Ruth would have been LaRoche’s 100th foster dog, and after she survived surgery, LaRoche — like Garcia — hoped for the best.

“This freaking dog made it through the surgery after it had a damn chain in her gut,” LaRoche said. “Now she can do anything.

“I thought, this is going to be the best happy ending ever.”

Garcia prepared to take Ruth for the weekend after the surgery, and LaRoche planned to take her on the following Monday. But by Saturday, Ruth’s conditioned had worsened, and she had become anemic and needed a blood transfusion. But with no blood available at several local facilities, Ruth died three days later.

“We were so hopeful and these people who did this to her, she’s not going to die because of them,” Garcia told Patch. “But she just crashed.”

Garcia added: “There were so many people that were sending her good vibes, who were praying for her and even us (at the rescue), we all became so attached to her.”

Since Ruth died on Aug. 17, the effort to locate the people responsible for leaving her in the park has continued. Border Trails Rescue just received her ashes back and her paw print as those who are trying to find justice for the dog that made such an impact continues, as does the effort to locate her previous owner.

Garcia knows finding those responsible for harming Ruth won’t be easy. But everything Ruth went through in her final days has inspired local residents to get involved.

“She was definitely a fighter,” Garcia said. “There was definitely something special about her. … We have some peace knowing that she knew love and that she didn’t die alone in the park.”

It’s that mission that now drives LaRoche and others to try to bring whoever abused Ruth to justice. LaRoche remains in contact with a humane investigator and hopes that the combination of the reward and law enforcement officials taking note of the case, something good can come out of her effort.

But the chances of turning anything up, she knows, aren’t good. Still, she refuses to give up.

“I will share that (reward) poster for the rest of my life, and someone has to know something,” LaRoche said. “I don’t have a lot of hope, but I’m going to keep looking.”