Rescue Dog Who Survived Pick Ax to Head Finds New Forever Home

A rescue dog who quite literally came within an inch of his life after being attacked with a pick ax has found a new forever home.

The affectionately named King Whacker is set to swap the streets of Thailand for a happy new life in Scotland after being adopted. It caps off a miraculous recovery for the canine, who was found in a terrible state by rescuer Niall Harbison after receiving a tip-off about the stricken canine.

"We don't really know exactly what happened to him, or why," Harbison told Newsweek. "Based on the vet examination, he was clearly struck with a blunt object and the wound suggested it was a pick ax."

Whatever the reason behind it, Harbison says King Whacker was lucky to be alive. "He was hit with pretty considerable force, and if the wound had been 1mm [0.04 inches] deeper, it would have killed him," Harbison said. "It's hard for me to say exactly why someone did that, but unfortunately incidents of animal cruelty like that are all too common here."

King Whacker is thought to have previously lived as one of the many ownerless dogs found roaming the streets of Thailand. In 2021, a study published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science put Thailand's total canine population at 12.8 million.

Of that number, an estimated 1.6 million of those dogs were thought to be ownerless. Originally from Ireland, Harbison has been busy leading the effort in helping these dogs find homes and has set himself a target of 10,000 canines a month.

Harbison currently provides food to up to 800 street dogs a day via a central kitchen service, as well as medicine and other preventative care. He's also working to try and bring the street dog population under control through a sterilization program. He's enjoyed some success already, having previously nursed a malnourished and mistreated Golden Retriever called Tina back to full health.

King Whacker's journey was a little different though. Explaining the name, Harbison said: "Originally, his name was just Whacker because somebody had clearly whacked him on the head. When he came back from the vets with a large cone on his head, he just walked around so regally, with his head held so high that we joked it was like he was wearing a crown. So that's how it evolved into King Whacker."

Though his injury looked severe, Harbison said King Whacker's initial recovery was relatively straightforward. "Whacker's recovery was actually fairly quick. He was stitched up, and they put a sort of drainage tube into the wound so that the pus and blood could drain out for a few days," Harbison said. "Within two weeks, the stitches could come out and the wound healed up almost completely within two months."

That doesn't mean it wasn't without its challenges. "The hardest part in the early days was just making sure that the wound stayed clean," Harbison explained. "It's obviously very hot and humid in Thailand, so we had to do a lot of cleaning and make sure he wasn't rubbing his head or ripping his stitches out. But Whacker was a model patient, never any fussing or complaining. He was loving and trusting from day one, despite everything."

Now King Whacker is set to get the Hollywood ending he deserves, with a move to a new home in Glasgow. While Harbison is "absolutely elated" to see King Whacker find a home, he'll be sad to see him go.

"Whacker is one of the best dogs I've known and he's going to make an incredible family dog," he said. "It will be bittersweet to see him go because I love having him around, but I couldn't ask for a better outcome for him."

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