You can't put a good dog down: Lazarus survives two lethal injections

  • Animals
Lazarus the dog survived two fatal injections. Credit: Two By Two Rescue / Facebook.

An unwanted dog has been renamed Lazarus after surviving two fatal injections intended to put him down.

The animal was handed into a shelter in Ozark, Alabama, by its owner who was moving home and could no longer care for him.

Having already survived being hit by a car, with a cut leg and a missing pad on his left rear paw, the dog was in a poor state and failed to attract a new owner.

So he was given a "put to sleep" or PTS date and, on September 10, a vet arrived at the shelter to end the dog's life.

But when workers at the centre checked on the body in the morning, they found him alive, looking at them, and having finished off his food from the day before.

Lazarus is now living with a foster family. Credit: Two By Two Rescue / Facebook.

Rescue worker Sonya King quickly volunteered to take him in and renamed the slightly-shaky dog Lazarus.

Lazarus now lives with a foster family in Alabama.