Monkey Shot Under the Right Eye With Harpoon Gun, Then One Lady Helps It Escape Death

Getty Images | TANG CHHIN SOTHY

WARNING: This article contains images that some readers may find  disturbing.

One day in May 2017, a monkey was discovered with an arrow stuck into his face going all the way into his back. Fortunately, a woman from Bangkok, Thailand, saved him.

The long-tailed macaque was found by a woman named Mongkol Plus, The Dodo reported. The monkey was shot under the right eye with a harpoon gun and miraculously survived.

Plus had tried to catch the monkey, which was later named Rocket, but it became frightened and jumped into a lake.

“He obviously did not know he was being rescued,” Tom Taylor, assistant director for Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), told The Dodo.

Rocket was later caught and taken to the vets, who successfully removed the arrow. “The arrow went through his skull almost hitting his brain and his vertebral column. It could have killed him instantly,” said Taylor.

Fortunately, Rocket recovered miraculously after the surgery. However, other monkeys are not as lucky.

“He’s alive and well today, and it’s a miracle,” said Edwin Wiek, founder of WFFT, in an interview with Khaosod English. “This happens quite often in Bang Khun Thian, but it’s really rare that animals survive.”

Taylor said some people consider monkeys as pests and shoot them in big cities in Thailand.

“Urban macaques often come onto conflicts with humans [and] are regularly persecuted as pests,” he said.

“In this case, the male [Rocket] has been shot in the face with an arrow; this may have been because someone wanted to seek vengeance for him damaging their property or it may have been by someone who wanted to use the animal as a target while out sport hunting,” he added.

But then, there are still plenty of kind people in the world!

Following the ordeal, Rocket had been recuperating at a rehabilitation center run by WFFT. Subsequently, in a few weeks’ time on June 11, 2017, he was released.

“Rocket Returns Home. The ‘Arrow Macaque’ Rocket has been successfully returned to his family,” WFFT wrote in a Facebook post.

Hopefully, Rocket will never get hurt again!