An animal rescue centre is asking for someone to find room in their heart, and in their home, this Christmas for a starved dog who was on the brink of death before being found.

Five year-old Tegan was discovered in Worcester earlier this month before being ferried by volunteers down to South East Dog Rescue in Sutton Valence, Maidstone.

The cross-breed should weigh around 40kg when fighting fit, but now clocks in on the scales at around half of that - such is the level of neglect she appears to have been subjected to.

Shocking images show how emaciated she has become as Kymm White, who runs the rescue centre, revealed the poor pup needed a life-saving operation before she could be properly cared for, after reaching incredible levels of desperation in trying to find food.

“The poor thing had been starved to an inch of her life,” said the 37-year-old.

“She'd somehow managed to get a can of dog food, started to chew it and as a result her mouth was bleeding.

“She must have swallowed a bit of the metal because she ended up needing surgery to remove the part of the can from her stomach.

“She was in the vets for a few days so blood and urine tests could be carried out. We wanted to rule out any major medical issues and it now just looks like a case of pure neglect.

“Tegan is such a sweet dog with a lovely temperament.

“Sadly this kind of thing happens all year round but it’s particularly busy for us at Christmas.”

The centre re-homes and rehabilitates dogs with behavioural issues and specialises in cases of starvation.

It tends to host up to 20 dogs on site, though another 10 are often cared for in foster homes and Kymm also sometimes looks after them at her house herself, as she has done in this instance with Tegan.

Anyone who may be interested in giving Tegan a permanent home this festive season is asked to get in touch with the centre via its website, which can be found at sedogrescue.co.uk or its Facebook page.

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