Oil Rig Workers Rescue Dog Swimming 135 Miles Off Thailand’s Coast

April 16, 2019

Oil rig workers recently rescued a dog they found swimming in the middle of the ocean, some 135 miles off the coast of Thailand.

The brown dog, identified as a male aspin (a mongrel dog native to the Philippines) around three to five years old, was discovered with its head poking out of the water while paddling through the ocean last Friday.

Evidently exhausted, the animal came swimming towards the men when they started calling out to it.

As the dog settled at the rusty metal bars of the rig, the men fished it to safety using a rope. Oil rig worker Khon Vitisak, one of the dog’s rescuers, immediately gave it a bucket of water.

“We found him trying to swim towards our rig, which is about 135 miles from the shore. Thankfully the sea was quite still because the wind was calm,” he was quoted as saying.

“We just saw its small head but if the ripples were bigger, I think we probably wouldn’t have noticed him at all. After he made it onto the bars below the rig he didn’t cry or bark at all. We looked for a way to help him and in the end, decided to use the rope to tie around his body to lift him up.”

“When we first took him onboard he was depressed and tired from being in the water for a long time. He had lost his body water. When we gave him water and minerals his symptoms improved. He started sitting up and walking normally.”

For two nights the dog was placed in a makeshift cage on the drilling platform where it was given water and food. The men also fed the dog vitamins and minerals, helping it recover faster.

How it ended up in the Gulf of Thailand remains a mystery for the rescuers, although some reports suggest it may have fallen from a fishing trawler.

On Sunday, the dog was lifted by crane onto another oil vessel passing through the area in order to bring it to a veterinarian for a checkup. With help from animal charity Watchdog Thailand, it arrived at a veterinary clinic in Songkhla, southern Thailand on Monday.

“The boat arrived at 10 a.m. and the dog was in good spirits. We took it to the vets to be checked and it was found to be healthy,” a spokesperson from the charity group said.

“Everybody who played a part in co-coordinating the rescue has done a brilliant job.”

The dog was named Boonrod, which reportedly means “the saved one” or “survivor” in Thai, according to BBC.

“We have checked on Boonrod again this evening and he is fine,” Vitisak noted.

“He has a lot of energy. We still don’t know how he was in the water 220km from the shore. It’s a miracle that we found him.”

“I hope to adopt him as a pet. I am looking forward to spending many happy years together with him.”

Featured image via Facebook/Watchdog Thailand

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