Pyrénées-Orientales: Mambo, martyr dog and symbol of animal abuse, died 13 years later

Naively, in this stifling night of August 9 to 10, 2009, the one who was not yet called Mambo was wandering.

Lost, this young mahogany-colored Pinscher dog was looking for the company of humans in the streets of Espira de L'Agly, north of Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales).

Probably abandoned on the August vacation route, he then came across, unfortunately, the idleness of the young people of the village.

In the wrong place, at the wrong time with the wrong people.

One of them, 17 years old and with a small reputation for petty theft, first siphoned the tank of a moped to recover gasoline.

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One of his accomplices seized the young dog and immobilized him.

The young miner sprayed him twice and then he played the lighter.

The dog became a living, screaming torch hurled at high speed through the streets.

He was recovered a bit further away, with third-degree burns to 60% of his fur.

Dany and René, restaurateur in Espira, then volunteers at the SPA, recovered it.

For weeks, he was cared for in the premises of the SPA and in the veterinary clinic.

Life-threatening prognosis for the mummified dog.

New daily bandages, morphine to ease the pain and the impressive resilience of the man who became Mambo.

Alain Delon had come to visit him

“The progress is considerable and the critical period has passed.

Mambo showed us his will to live, his fighting spirit.

He was never ever aggressive.

He wags his tail when he sees us arrive for treatment, even if it's all painful,” said doctor Florence Collignon, a veterinarian who cared day after day for the burn victim with tender eyes on his bed of suffering.

In the meantime, the little burnt dog has softened all of France, which has mobilized to come to his aid.

Messages, medicine packages pour in.

“In the services, we only talk about that.

And at home it's the same.

We're worried about Mambo's health, really!

exclaims a head nurse at a Toulouse hospital who demands an almost daily health report for the brave little dog.

And Mambo also moves all animal lovers: Brigitte Bardot, Michel Drucker, Zinédine Zidane… And Alain Delon who comes to visit him.

Placed in police custody, the two young alleged perpetrators of this cruelty and mistreatment of animals struggle to explain themselves.

The 22-year-old girl, who had succeeded in attracting the animal and then immobilizing it, was sentenced to six months in prison.

The main author, aged 17, was sentenced, a few months later, in December 2009, to two months in prison in a climate of strong mobilization of animal rights associations.

During these thirteen years, torn from fate, Mambo has never disappointed.

Neither his masters nor his admirers.