Hopeless Captivity: The teггіЬɩe ѕᴜffeгіпɡ and teггoг of a shackled dog and its defenseless puppies, trying to eѕсарe the һагѕһ reality

According to the Irish Times, on November 6, a passerby spotted the defenseless, nursing mother and her puppies in a field near the little town of Elphin. The individual quickly requested assistance. The mother and her puppies were transferred to a nearby vet facility run by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA)

Nobody knew how long the seven-member family had been stuck there. Rescuers believe the mother and her pups were abandoned soon after the mother gave birth, according to the Daily Mail.

The seven canines were sent to the ISPCA’s national animal facility in County Longford for immediate medical care. Fortunately, neither mom nor her infants were really harmed, other from having to endure their period of hunger and the freezing cold.

Comments poured in when the ISPCA shared photos of the adorable, stoic lurcher and her babies on Facebook. “This has to be the saddest photo I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot with so much cruelty around us,” one commenter said, “this is awful, poor mom dog trying to protect her pups, it’s simply shocking.”