Shot in the head, this corgi survived for days before finding care at PSPCA’s Main Line Animal Rescue

Brave and valiant like the legendary king, a little corgi named Arthur who was shot in the head but managed to survive on his own for days is now alive and thriving thanks to his outsize will and the Pennsylvania SPCA’s Main Line Animal Rescue in Chester County.

On July 14, Arthur crawled under the fence at a family farm in New Holland, Lancaster County. The owners of the property called Grace Herbert, cofounder and president of Finding Shelter, a volunteer rescue organization, who brought Arthur to PSPCA’s affiliate Main Line Animal Rescue in Phoenixville on July 18, said Herbert and Nicole Wilson, PSPCA’s director of Humane Law Enforcement and shelter operations.

When he arrived, Arthur had a large wound on his forehead, was covered in fleas, had ear infections, and was also anemic.

At first, it was believed the gaping wound on Arthur’s head, which was crusted over with discharge and debris, might have been caused when he shimmied under the fence at the farm.

But when he was sedated and the wound was cleaned, Alicia Royer, the PSPCA veterinarian at Main Line Animal Rescue, found something much more nefarious at the heart of Arthur’s injury.

“When I was clipping and cleaning I realized what this was and it felt a little ghastly,” Royer said. “I had this feeling that it was a gunshot based on the circular pattern of the wound and the raised edges.”

X-rays confirmed Arthur had been shot. Miraculously, the bullet missed his brain, but it fragmented into an untold number of pieces, which remain lodged in his jaw, Royer said.

Arthur was treated with antibiotics, pain medications, wound cleanings, and ointments to patch over the hole in his head, through which air had painfully been escaping when he breathed.

“Luckily for him, it’s been a little over a week and it’s healing up really, really well,” Royer said. “He’s such a happy guy. By the second day after he woke up from anesthesia he was giving us his cute little butt wiggles. He’s a pusher and a doer.”

Royer is hopeful Arthur will make a full recovery, but the bullet fragments that remain in his head may have to be removed if they cause problems down the road.

Today, Arthur is convalescing at Main Line Animal Rescue, where he feasts like a king on chicken nuggets and undying adoration from the staff. He is fully mobile and loves running around the rescue’s yard.

Meanwhile, investigators with the PSPCA’s Humane Law Enforcement team have been hard at work trying to determine what happened to Arthur.

Wilson said investigators were able to track down Arthur’s owners, who live on a farm that’s a few minutes’ drive from the one where he was found. The owners, who have a small breeding operation on their property, were trying to transition 8-year-old Arthur — their only male — from a breeding dog into a farm dog who ran loose on the property, Wilson said.

“Unfortunately, as many dogs often will, he did not stay on his own property,” she said. “At that point, he became missing. The owners had apparently reached out to neighbors to ask if they’d seen him, but they didn’t find him.”

Wilson said Arthur’s owners, who were “distressed” when they learned what happened to him, have been ruled out as suspects in his shooting. Given his medical condition, the owners decided to surrender Arthur to the PSPCA, she said.

“They realize the best situation at this point is for him to be able to find a forever home through our organization,” Wilson said.

Given that Arthur was found relatively close to his home, Wilson said it’s most likely someone in the area shot him, though the reasoning behind why they did so remains unclear. But whoever did shoot Arthur intended to kill him, Wilson said.

“It was a close-range shot,” she said. “Based upon the location of the injury, they had some rudimentary idea of the proper location to shoot a dog, they just did not accurately do so.”

Wilson said whether Arthur moved at the last minute, the gun slipped, or the person didn’t know the trajectory the shot should take, Arthur is lucky to have survived.

“All the stars aligned for this little guy,” she said.

Investigators are still working the case and canvassing the area where Arthur was found, in the hopes of identifying his shooter.

“Clearly somebody out there knows what happened and hopefully if they see the story someone will contact us,” Wilson said. “The nature of this case, this wasn’t a dog attacking something and they were stopping that dog in mid-action. This injury shows somebody in close proximity attempting to kill this dog.”

Anyone with information is urged to called PSPCA’s Humane Law Enforcement team at 866-601-SPCA.

PSPCA is accepting donations for Arthur’s care and medical bills at pspca.org/arthur or via Venmo at @pspca. Anyone interested in adopting Arthur may contact the Main Line Animal Rescue at adopt@MLAR.org.