Camo was initially suspicious of the rescuers, and he growled when they removed him from his cage — but at the same time, he seemed desperate to connect with people.

“He kept looking at me like he wanted to trust me,” Adam Parascandola, senior director for animal protection and crisis response at HSI, told The Dodo last year. “He didn’t seem so much unsocialized — just confused as to why he was there.”

After being removed from the farm, Camo was transported to the U.S. and taken into the care of Roff Rescue, a group based in Pennsylvania. Then Camo was placed in foster care with a woman who also worked as a dog groomer.

“She was able to groom him and send me the photos,” Parascandola said. “I knew he’d been underweight, but I couldn’t really see it until she’d shaved him — he was completely emaciated underneath all of that fur.”