08/01/2025
This morning, Iris took her last breath. The amount of hate and rage we hold toward the people who let Iris get to this point is immeasurable and what they did to her is unforgivable.
Iris was too weak to reposition herself, so part of her care involved gently rotating her to prevent further complications. But when they turned her this morning, her blood pressure and heart rate began to spike and then she began seizing. What started as a focal seizure quickly worsened. Iris then had a full, heart stopping seziure and flat lined.
They managed to bring her back briefly, but she could no longer breathe on her own. That’s when they called us and we knew we had to let her go. There was no coming back.
I spent a few minutes crying and even though I wasnt there, I felt her leave us. I felt her pain leave and as it did I felt my heart harden. Overwhelmingly, I felt rage, anger, and resentment take over, because this didn’t have to happen.
She didn’t need a miracle, she needed real medical intervention, not “care” from people with no qualifications to be treating her. If she had gotten the help she needed, she’d still be alive today. Iris didn’t die peacefully in a loving home. She died because people failed her, over and over again. From the ones who bred her, used her, and butchered her body, to the ones who stood by in silence — you are ALL complicit.
To those who are involved in or have information about this vile backyard breeding/surgery operation, if you choose to stay silent, you are just as guilty. Your silence protects abusers and condemns more dogs to the same fate as Iris. You are responsible for every life that continues to suffer because of your inaction. Do the right thing. Speak up. Come forward.
Iris was used, starved, and sliced open with no anesthesia. She was stitched with thread that belonged in a craft kit, not a surgical suite. She was bred until her body gave out and then discarded like trash and left to die alone. This is the reality of backyard breeding.
The people who did this to her are your neighbors. They are the ones you buy cute micro-bully-XL-gator-blood-razor-edge-bullsh*t-description-inserted-here pit bull puppies from. They are the ones who use these dogs to profit, but behind every one of those litters is a dog like Iris, suffering in silence, used up and discarded. She wasn’t treated like a living soul. She was a commodity. A profit source. A means to an end and nothing more.
Iris deserved so much more than the life she was given. She should have known safety. She should have known kindness. She should have had the chance to heal. And she should have known love, not just from us and her veterinary team, but from the very beginning of her life.
Instead, she became a symbol of how broken this system is.
To those of you who loved her from afar: thank you. She felt that love. I believe that. And I promise, her suffering will not be in vain.
Thank you to each and every one of you who donated or shared to support Iris’s care. Because of you, we were able to give her the best possible chance. Thank you to her veterinary team. Your compassion meant everything.
To Iris, rest easy, little one. You were deeply loved by so many people who never even got the chance to meet you. We will celebrate your resilience, and we will never stop fighting in your name.
