Dog shoots man in bed, ‘paw stuck in trigger’

An American dog owner was shot by his pet after it jumped on his bed and set off a loaded gun, police said Wednesday.

The man, from Memphis, Tennessee, was asleep beside his female partner. He was shot by the dog, escaping with a graze to his left thigh that was treated in hospital.

A police incident report said the dog, a year-old pit bull named Oreo, “got his paw stuck in the trigger guard and hit the trigger”.

It did not specify the type of weapon fired and recorded the incident as “accidental injury.”

While gun violence is prolific in the United States, cases of animals shooting humans are rare.

When a dog misfires

Two years ago, a German shepherd dog shot and killed a 30-year-old man in Kansas. It stepped on a hunting rifle.

In 2018, a 51-year-old man from Iowa was shot in the leg by his pit bull-Labrador mix.

Local news station Fox 13 Memphis cited the Tennessee victim’s girlfriend, who was not named, as saying she was sleeping when the gun went off.

“The dog is playful. He likes to jump around and stuff like that, and it just went off,” she reportedly said.

Her lesson from the incident: “Keep the safety on or use a trigger lock.”

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