They say that you can try to bury your past, but ultimately, it will come back to haunt you. Well, that was certainly the case for a man who buried his dog alive because he didn’t want her anymore. Now we totally get that some people aren’t animal lovers. So much like people who don’t like kids, they shouldn’t have any. But although some folks actually like pets initially, they can flip a switch and simply get fed up with them. Now you’d think that someone that gets to this point would simply take their dog to an animal shelter or give it away to someone, but this guy found a cowardly way to dispose of his pet. Fortunately, his dog wasn’t ready to give up on life.

Animal cruelty is no laughing matter, and this adorable pooch certainly didn’t deserve to get abandoned by her owner.

But that’s exactly what happened. She wound up buried in his backyard under dirt and rocks and left to die. The only problem was that she very much wanted to live.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

The owner was determined to make sure that his dog never made it out of her man-made prison in the ground alive.

So he tied her down to keep her from escaping. But despite the owner’s attempt to murder his dog by burying it under the Earth like a piece of trash, she survived.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

This female mastiff was living in Paris when her horrific nightmare began, and it was her owner’s cruelty that put her in the ground.

But it was the kindness of another human being by the name of Pedro Dinis, that saved her in the knick of time. Dinis added, “I was in the right place at the right time to save a life.”

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

Dinis had been walking his own dog, named Goddess, in Carrieres-sur-Seine, just west of Paris, when he noticed the dog buried in the dirt.

Only her head was visible and it was really difficult for him to see her because of all the dirt that had been used to cover her up.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

He also noticed that the dog had a rope tied around its neck. So he quickly got to work at digging her out.

Through it all, it became obvious to him that the dog hadn’t accidentally fallen into a hole in the ground. It had been buried alive on purpose.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

Dinis wasn’t the only one that lent the mastiff a hand out of her Earthly prison grave.

He had help from his own dog whom he had been walking when they both discovered the pooch in distress. The tiny dog used its claws to help dig out its potential new friend out before it was too late.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

The mastiff’s name is Athena and both Dinis and his dog dug, dug, and dug until they discovered something shocking.

Athena wasn’t just buried alive, she was also tied to a rope that was also tied to a sack filled with gravel. Clearly, her former owner wanted to make sure that she never ever got out.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

The sack of gravel would have ensured that Athena’s death was certain as it kept her grounded and unable to get out.

By the time Dinis and his dog got Athena out, she was shocked, sad, and severely dehydrated. So he gave her his own water to drink out of.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

As soon as she’d had enough to drink, Dinis, started to clean her face up, but both her and his dog, Goddess were very concerned.

He was appalled by the fact that anyone could have done this to Athena, or any animal for that matter. So he started taking photos and sharing them on Facebook.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

After Dinis contacted emergency services in France, Athena was taken to the nearest veterinary clinic.

Although authorities have no way of knowing how long she had been buried in the ground, they believed that she may have been trapped in there for several hours, based solely on the dog’s level of stress.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

Athena didn’t have a microchip, which made it difficult to track down her cruel and abusive owner.

But she did have a tattoo that helped authorities locate her owner. Once the 21-year-old was taken into custody, he claimed that the dog had run away on her own. But authorities called his bluff because the 10-year-old mastiff suffers from arthritis and couldn’t have dug a hole and trapped herself.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook

The owner was slapped with a $31,000 fine and animal cruelty charge and could wind up with a 2-year prison sentence.

While locals have petitioned for a stronger sentence, Athena gets to live happily ever after at a dog rescue group called SOS Dogue de Bordeaux with a bunch of adoptive canine siblings and two loving owners by the name of Jean-Pierre and Raymonde Delfosse.

Pedro Dinis / Facebook