A dog shot 11 times with air rifle has miraculously survived after a four-hour emergency operation in Abu Dhabi.
Animal welfare charity Animalia shared photos of Buddy taking his first step to recovery.
The injured dog was found by a woman in mid-December, unable to walk in the Ras Al Khaimah desert.
Even the director of Animalia, Dr. Susan Aylott, said that the dog was lucky to be alive.
If he had not have been found, he would have died as he needed surgery urgently. An examination of the wounds suggested he had been shot at close range. He was paralysed from the waist down and was dragging himself along the ground when he was found. Now he has had the bullets removed in surgery, he is able to stand and that is a good sign but it is a long, uncertain road to recovery,” she was quoted as saying by The National.
Since there was no CCTV footage or evidence as to what happened, Dr. Aylott said the police were unable to do anything.
Buddy was first taken to an animal shelter in Ras Al Khaimah before getting the treatment in Abu Dhabi for surgery.
Dr. Amer Grizic, a Bosnian vet at the same animal welfare charity, said it would take at least six weeks of hydrotherapy and follow-up care before the dog was likely to regain its mobility.
He also revealed that it was one of the hardest surgeries he has done on an animal so far.
“We see these kinds of injuries more commonly in Europe where there is more hunting and dogs can sometimes get shot accidentally. I am not trained for this kind of specialist surgery as one of the bullets was close to his spinal cord. It should have been done by a neurosurgeon but we did not have access to one here. His injuries suggest he was shot from just a metre away, and he lost a lot of blood,” he added.
Had Buddy not found, he would have died in the desert, he added.
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