There is not a dog on this Earth who doesn’t deserve a happy, loving home.
Others aren’t so lucky and end up living on the street, scrounging for scraps most of their lives.
This is especially true when dogs aren’t spayed or neutered, leaving the stray population to spiral out of control.
Unfortunately, that was the tragic case for an incredible sweet girl named Belle, a lab and hound mix found on the streets of South Africa.
Most heartbreaking of all, Belle was literally carpeted in blood-sucking ticks, especially on her tender ears and eyelids.
Thankfully, the kind folks at CLAW (Community Led Animal Welfare) found Belle in time and completely transformed her life.
Scroll through below to learn more about Belle’s tough start in life and the beautiful way that kind people gave her a new lease on life.
Please note: We’ve blurred out many of the photos below, as some readers may find them disturbing. To reveal the photos, please click them.
Facebook / CLAW
This is Belle.
Back in September 2016, animal-rescue workers in Johannesburg, South Africa, found her wandering the streets in a heartbreaking state.
You can see that small white bumps cover her ears and eyes. Those are all ticks.
Facebook / CLAW
It would take a heart of stone not to feel for this poor creature, who is completely carpeted in the blood-sucking insects.
There are so many that she almost appears to have mange or another skin condition, but the “rash” is just a thick coating of bloated ticks.
They cluster on her ears and eyelids, where the skin is thin and blood vessels are plentiful.
The ticks had drained Belle of so much blood that she was actually anemic, barely able to move.
Facebook / CLAW
These images are incredibly hard to look at, especially for dog lovers, but they do the important work of showing what dogs really go through when they are left on their own.
CLAW, the organization that found Belle, couldn’t even remove most of the ticks right away because of the blood loss Belle would experience from taking them all out at once.
Instead, they had to simply treat her and wait for the ticks to fall off.
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