Would you keep the dog?

Question

So.... Here's the situation:
The preface:
My aunt has a miniature Doberman Pinscher. She's practically always had a dog(s), well as far back as I can remember. She has a doggy door so the dog(s) have always been able to go in and out of the house as they please and have a large fenced in area to roam/play and be a dog (like 3-4 acres with a pond) 
Recently she's had a stroke of...well terrible luck.
She has diabetes and isn't great at keeping it under control, foot had gotten infected.. her husband wouldn't take her to the hospital and her son popped in for a visit.. and ended up taking her once her foot was the size of a basketball.. well by then the infection had spread up her leg and they had to amputate it. 
After it was amputated, and her husband got sent off to jail, she was living alone. Her leg became infected again from sweat and grime from wearing the prosthetic.. and so she's been having to crawl around her home.. with no one there to help her.. But for the most part she's been able to take care of her day to day needs on her own.
Yesterday morning, she woke up to go to the bathroom... And when she was crawling across the floor to the bathroom.. she noticed a lot of blood.. well her dog had ate her foot while she was fucking sleeping.. so now she has to have her foot amputated. 
My dad asked her what she was going to do with the dog.. and she's like.. I'm going to keep it. 
So.. my dad and I were like you need to surrender that dog and get yourself into a home because well.. she's alone, her health is in a steady decline, and it just doesn't make sense to keep the dog. especially after it ate her foot. Which the dog had food/water. It's not because it was hungry. 
So would you keep the dog if you were in this situation?

Answer

She needs regular care. The dog didn't act maliciously. It was probably dead tissue- if she didn't feel it, I'd say this is likely, and to a dog, they will eat it especially if it smells. Unpleasant I know.
A home is probably the best place for her so she has round the clock care. It's a horrible position to be in at the moment.

Answer

actually I think once they eat flesh they have to be put down.  but I'd be more concerned about your aunt, sounds like she isnt in a good way with no family to help and care about her

Answer

No, because she needs to go to a home where she has care and people to help her, and I doubt you can bring dogs. She never should have been left in a situation where she had to literally crawl around her home. My dad has diabetes as well, and I can't imagine just leaving him alone like that. While I understand that her not taking control of her diabetes is what led to the infection and amputation, i feel bad that (from the sounds of it) she didn't have a better support system.

Answer

Her dog ate her foot and she didn’t wake up while this was happening?! Yeah she needs to go into a home and that dog needs to go elsewhere.

Answer

Animals are animals. A tasty foot is irresistible so I wouldn’t blame the dog. Honestly, I think she should give up the dog because of her health conditions but not because it ate her foot. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Answer

She needs to be in a home, or have live in care. I feel like her not noticing a dog was eating her foot almost makes it possible for someone to intervene?? I’d look into it. Poor lady needs help.

Answer

You put some kibble or a steak in front of a hungry dog and hes going to go for the steak. Thats what happened. The dog didnt eat her foot for fun, he was hungry and there was a steak to eat. Her foot was obviously dead if she didnt wake up from it. The dog didnt do anything wrong. 
She needs to rehome the dog. She cant take care of herself, she cant take care of it. She also needs either hired home help or to be in a home so she can be cared for.

Answer

The dog didn’t attack her, my guess is since she didn’t feel it and didn’t wake up to say”stop”. Dog just thought it was something to chew.  However, if she can’t take care of herself I don’t think she can take care of the dog.  
But other than that I don’t see a reason to get rid of the dog, theoretically assuming she can take care of it

Answer

I said no because she needs to live in a home care community (villas, nursing home, or retirement home) and most of those places don’t allow pets. If they do she could perhaps get a service dog once she goes through physical therapy and learns self care for her legs. I would not want her keeping the current dog. It did not necessarily do wrong (though, wow 😳) but she needs a dog that could help her if she’s determined to have a pet. Surrender the current dog with full disclosure of what happened. It’s unfortunate but necessary. Did the hospital not put in a welfare request and contact animal services? I had a cat bite me once (completely my fault) and the doctor treating the wound was pushing for information to collect the cat.

Answer

If she were still capable of taking care of herself safely I would say she should keep the dog. It's a dog's natural instinct to get rid of dead tissue, it wasn't being aggressive. But sounds like she really needs to go into assisted living, in which case she won't be able to keep her dog

Would you keep the dog?

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