{"id":2538,"date":"2024-12-10T10:10:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T10:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2024-12-10T10:10:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T10:10:17","slug":"riona-was-cruelly-set-on-fire-after-a-year-of-recovery-shes-finally-going-to-her-new-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/archives\/2538","title":{"rendered":"Riona was cruelly set on fire \u2014 after a year of recovery, she\u2019s finally going to her new home"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class='\"entry-header\"'>\n<div class='\"entry-content\"'>\n<p>It\u2019s truly unbelievable how cruel some people can be to dogs. A sweet pup named Riona suffered as much as anybody after being brutally set on fire by her owner last year.\n</p><p>But almost exactly a year after that horrific incident, Riona is finally going to her new home.\n</p><p>Last June, residents in Nutbush, Tennessee witnessed a shocking site as Riona, a pitbull mix, ran down the street engulfed in flames. The smell of gas made it clear that she had been intentionally set on fire.\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image' size-full><img loading='\"lazy\"' decoding='\"async\"' class='\"wp-image-25648\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/www.viral-stories.online%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2024%5C/10%5C/A1-76.png%5C%22" sizes='\"auto,' srcset='\"https:\/\/www.viral-stories.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A1-76.png' https: alt='\"\"' width='\"720\"' height='\"518\"'>\n<p>\u201cAll you could smell was gas,\u201d Mallory Mclemore of\u00a0Bluff City Veterinary Specialists told\u00a0Memphis Commercial Appeal.\n</p><p>\u201cShe was burnt and covered in diesel fuel\u2026 It confirmed she was set on fire via witness statements,\u201d Ginger Natoli, founder of the Tails of Hope Dog Rescue, told\u00a0Newsweek. \u201cWe have obtained ring cam footage from a neighbor that also shows her running in a ball of flames.\u201d\n</p><div class='\"g' g-5>\n<div class='\"g-single' a-28>\n\n<p>Riona\u2019s ear was burnt off, but thankfully her left eye was saved after emergency medical response. She was taken in by Tails of Hope Dog Rescue, and received medical treatments at Bluff City Veterinary Specialists. She was given twice daily full body wraps to protect her skin.\n</p><p>A TikTok video of Riona\u2019s story went viral with millions of views, garnering sympathy for Riona around the world.\n</p><p>Riona began a long road to recovery, receiving a series of skin grafts to treat the fourth degree burns all over her body. While she was traumatized by the ordeal, Riona was also said to be in good spirits throughout her recovery.\n</p><p>\u201cShe\u2019s just always wagging her tail,\u201d Mclemore said.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s what makes it even worse, I guess. Not that it would ever be OK, but just being so sweet and for somebody to do something like this to her. She just loves everybody.\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cShe\u2019s actually kind of cute with one ear,\u201d Natoli told the Commercial Appeal.\u00a0\u201cIt makes her personality cute.\u201d\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image' size-full><img loading='\"lazy\"' decoding='\"async\"' class='\"wp-image-25649\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/www.viral-stories.online%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2024%5C/10%5C/A1-77.png%5C%22" sizes='\"auto,' srcset='\"https:\/\/www.viral-stories.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A1-77.png' https: alt='\"\"' width='\"716\"' height='\"806\"'>\n<p>Tails of Hope continued to share updates of Riona\u2019s recovery, and supporters sent in donations and gifts for the dog.\n</p><p>Meanwhile,\u00a043-year-old Quishon Brown was arrested\u00a0for allegedly setting Riona on fire. Police charged him with misdemeanor assault and two felonies, aggravated cruelty to animals and setting fire to personal property. The case is currently awaiting trial.\n</p><p>According to a\u00a0Facebook post, Riona\u2019s story also helped a new animal cruelty bill pass in Tennessee.\n</p><p>Months passed, and slowly but surely Riona\u2019s condition improved. And recently, almost exactly a year after she was set on fire, there has been an inspiring update to Riona\u2019s story: she\u2019s finally going to her new home!\n</p><p>Tails of Hope wrote that they would be embarking on an ten-hour road trip to bring Riona to her new forever home.\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image' size-full><img loading='\"lazy\"' decoding='\"async\"' class='\"wp-image-25647\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/www.viral-stories.online%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2024%5C/10%5C/A1-75.png%5C%22" sizes='\"auto,' srcset='\"https:\/\/www.viral-stories.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A1-75.png' https: alt='\"\"' width='\"654\"' height='\"745\"'>\n<p>\u201cOur goal was to get her a forever home, and that\u2019s exactly what we found,\u201d Natoli told the\u00a0Commercial Appeal. \u201cRiona has other dogs to play with, she has children to play with, she\u2019s got a big yard to play in, she\u2019s got a family that has experience in the medical field and an understanding of what her injuries were.\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cRiona\u2019s story is not coming to an end, in fact it is really just beginning,\u201d the rescue wrote on Facebook. \u201cWe have all been a part of this miracle, our \u2018warrior\u2019 girl.\u201d\n</p><p>In a reminder of how the work of animal rescues is never done, Tails of Hope said that right after Riona left for her new home, they took in another rescue dog who had been a burn victim. \u201cThere is always another in need,\u201d they wrote. Now we get to be part of yet another story.\u201d\n</p><p><strong>What a horrible thing for this poor sweet dog to go through, but we\u2019re so happy that a year later Riona is off to her new home!\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s truly unbelievable how cruel some people can be to dogs. A sweet pup named Riona suffered as much as anybody after being brutally set on fire by her owner last year. But almost exactly a year after that horrific incident, Riona is finally going to her new home. Last June, residents in Nutbush, Tennessee [&hellip;]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2540,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions\/2540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}</p></strong></p></figure></p></figure></p></div></div></figure></p></div></header>