#Elderly dog freed from backyard prison after 7 years

This pup’s owner was doggone cruel, but now the pooch is free at last.

For seven years, Mingo the golden retriever mix was confined to a 6-by-10-foot pen in her owner’s backyard. The caged-in canine was deprived of companionship, toys, the ability to exercise and often water, according to PETA.

Fieldworkers associated with the animal-activism group called the authorities on Mingo’s owner, but they refused to intervene, so PETA members intervened themselves: They began providing Mingo with food, water, toys, a doghouse and plenty of head scratches.

Years passed, and Mingo’s health began to decline, leading the owner to eventually relent and allow PETA to remove the now over-10-year-old from her yard cage.

Ever since, the pup’s life has been on the up and up.

Although the very good girl suffers from heartworm disease and is suspected to have early-stage liver cancer, which may prove terminal, her quality of life has increased exponentially since being removed from her longtime, makeshift home, reported PETA.

Mingo now lives with the PETA worker who removed her from her previous enclosure, and — instead of being limited to a feces-filled plot — has full reign of the couch and carpet, where she reportedly loves to roll around. She also has a new dog brother and a dog friend, fellow PETA rescue Edith.

Among Mingo’s favorite delights in her new life are sniffing the breeze during open-window car rides and collecting blankets and towels, frequently for snuggling purposes.

“Mingo is savoring every second of her new life and now receiving the kindness and respect that she was long denied as a lonely ‘outside dog,’ ” said PETA senior vice president Daphna Nachminovitch in a press release. “There are countless other dogs like Mingo still out there, and PETA encourages caring people to help them by pushing for laws that prohibit keeping dogs caged or chained outdoors, alone and forgotten.”