Utah Man Rescues Starving, Scabbed Dog Wandering Salt Flats

SANDY, UT — Late Sunday night, Matt Bentley drove his midnight blue Jeep Wrangler Sahara to the Salt Flats in search of a particular area he'd visited before. He brought his blue nose pit bull, Bella, on the special trek ahead of her birthday on Wednesday.

As they drove near the entrance of the park, Bentley noticed something walking on the road. It was dark. He didn't quite know what it was at first.

"I realized it was a lost dog so I sped up, caught it, jumped out of the Jeep and once I started talking to it, it noticed me," he tells Patch.

The dog walked up to him. In a video that he recorded, Bentley says he found the animal in the "middle of nowhere."

"Probably been out there forever," he says in the video posted on Facebook. "He's safe now. We're going to get you some help, bud. It'll be ok."

The dog was hairless. Scabs covered part of its face and body. It was dehydrated. It also smelled pretty bad.

"You could tell it was in rough shape," he tells Patch. "Couldn't really tell until I put it in the Jeep how bad of shape it was in though. Once the light hit it, it kind of sunk in how bad a shape it was in."

"You could tell it had been out there for awhile," he says.

Bentley drove — with the windows open — to a friend's house before transporting the animal to a veterinarian. It never crossed his mind not to bring the animal into his Jeep with his dog.

"Once I had it the vehicle and I saw it, I was like, yeah I better get this thing home soon and out of my Jeep," Bentley says with a chuckle.

The animal, which was really, really hungry, scarfed down half a turkey roll at one point. After stopping at a friend's house, Bentley took the animal to a veterinarian and was told the dog probably wouldn't have survived another week.

The dog was then moved to the Utah Animal Adoption Center, which named the dog, Kelly and is rehabilitating her. Now, they're trying to find out if she has an owner.

Shelter manager Lila Oulson told KSTU-TV she'd never seen a dog in such poor condition.

“She’s scabbed over, she has sores on her, and then she has no fur,” Oulson said.

She estimated the dog, which was suffering from severe sarcoptic mange and malnourishment, had likely been in the desert for at least three months and wouldn't have survived more than a couple weeks longer.

Kelly is expected to fully recovery after at least a month.

Bentley said he's had people from all over the country reach out to him about adopting Kelly. Friends family and people he doesn't even know have reached out to him in support of what he did.

"It's been cool seeing everybody come together to try to help her," he tells Patch.

Bentley said it took him hours to vacuum out his jeep and sanitize it with bleach and lysol. He also threw out a blanket and bedding: "Everything that the dog touched," he adds.

Bella has also received preventative medication.

This mystery miracle dog was found in the middle of nowhere, wandering the West Desert for what could have been months. @UtahAnimals says she didn't have much longer to live but thankfully a Good Samaritan rescued her and she's on her way to recovery. pic.twitter.com/QiR5KWTZdf
— Lauren Steinbrecher (@LaurenSnews) January 16, 2018

Patch has reached out to the adoption center and will update when we hear back.

Video and Photo credit: Matt Bentley