Expats Take On 12-hour ‘Brutal Hike’ Just to Save Injured Dog

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Animal lovers are often willing to do anything to save an injured animal, and two men in Taiwan are no exception—they hiked for six hours just to save a dog.

In late March, Seán McCormack received a photo on Facebook, sent by a woman of a 1-year-old dog curling up outside a guesthouse in Taroko National Park in Taiwan. The woman told McCormack, an independent dog rescuer in Taiwan, that the dog lost his front right paw in a trap, and his front left paw was injured.

McCormack thought that he could drive to the location and decided to rescue the dog, which was later named Sandy.

“The lady said, ‘It’s a six-hour hike,’ and I thought, ‘There must be a back road. There must be because there’s a guesthouse there. And Google Maps said I could drive there,’” McCormack told The Dodo.

However, McCormack didn’t know that the only way to the guesthouse was a hike up a steep trail.

He had to contact his friend, Ross Tweedie, co-owner of Taiwan Adventures, a trekking company, for help.

Tweedie agreed.

“It’s a brutal hike,” Tweedie said. “It’s not one for beginners, and Sean was in the beginner category. He told me that he hadn’t done anything like that before.”

McCormack had no idea what he was getting himself into. It was a challenging hike, and he almost gave up trying to climb up the mountain.

When the duo finally reached the guesthouse after the tough hike, a timid Sandy decided to play hide and seek.

So it took them a while longer to find the dog, which was hiding under some plastic chairs.

“This little dog was under there, wagging his whole back end,” McCormack recalled.

The duo noticed that Sandy’s left paw had been sliced by a snare, revealing the bone.

They knew Sandy needed help urgently and trekked down immediately—another six hours—with Sandy inside Tweedie’s backpack.

The 12-hour grueling hike finally ended when they reached the bottom and sent Sandy to the vet.

In order to save Sandy’s life, sections of his front legs were amputated, but he did “amazingly well” after the surgery, McCormack said.

“We were both proud that we’d gone to this huge effort,” McCormack said of the rescue. “When you transform the life of an animal, especially one that isn’t likely to get help from anyone else … it’s a very fulfilling thing to do.”

“It all came together,” Tweedie added. “There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but it didn’t. It was very much worth every second and every pound of sweat.”

Sandy has since been adopted by Bob Chau of Merlot Café & Bistro in Taiwan, according to an Instagram post.

Kudos to the duo for expending such a huge effort to save Sandy’s life!