27.5.14

Shooting Darts With The Intent to Hurt?

A fellow animal lover had informed us of a recent case that he had come across – a dart stuck in the shoulder blade of a stray dog. Who had done this evil deed to a poor innocent dog? We were terribly disturbed and upset by the thought of someone going around shooting darts and arrows on these homeless dogs, for fun, with the intent to hurt. 

This was the dart lodged inside the dog's back
The dart did not seem like a tranquilizer dart so we didn’t think that the intention was to tranquilize then trap the dog to bring it in for sterilization. We did a quick research on tranquilizer darts and found out that these darts can cause severe harm and injury such as severe tissue injury, including haemorrhage and bone fractures to small animals.

The poor dog undergoing surgery to remove the dart from his back
Looking at the photographs and x-ray, the dart was very deeply lodged into the back of this dog. Whoever who shot that dart would have been someone with great strength, shot from close range or both. Was it intentional to hurt the dog? Kill it? Or was the dog mistaken for a wild boar?

X-ray showing the dart lodged in the dog 

The culprit’s actions didn’t seem like it had the intention to tranquilize and rescue the dog for sterilization. Was it for culling then? Was it a homemade dart? Are these legal in Singapore and who has access to them?

Fortunately kind souls managed to save the dog in time, send it to the vet and the poor dog underwent a surgery to remove the dart from its back.
Undergoing surgery. Thank God for fellow animal lovers.

The fortunate dog survived. 

We would like to appeal for information. Has anyone seen or heard of similar cases? Do you have photographic evidence? Email us at hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg  We need to know more in order to protect these innocent stray dogs from being walking targets.