A woman sitting on her toilet was nearly killed by her pet Rottweiler earlier this month after she reportedly fed it a THC gummy.
In the aftermath of the hour-long attack, the severely injured victim, who had owned the dog without issue for three years, hid in her bedroom as the dog roamed the house, according to an incident report obtained by the Smoking Gun.
Two animal control officers from southwestern Michigan's Otsego Animal Shelter reportedly approached the home with catchpoles and spotted the dog through the front window.
When they opened the door, they noticed blood on the carpet and watched the dog wander from the living room into the kitchen, where it hid behind a table.
As one of the officers kept watch, the other moved into the bedroom to rescue the woman, finding “an extreme amount of blood on the bed as well as the walls and floor.”
Because the woman couldn't get up on her own, EMS soon entered the home and began caring for her wounds. They then drove the woman to an airport where she was loaded onto a helicopter and transported to the hospital.
When one of the animal control officers called the victim's father, he admitted he had purchased “gummies” for the dog because his daughter had recently gone through a divorce and the dog was stressed as a result.
The victim later confirmed that she had fed the dog one of the gummies that morning.
The woman's sister said that she “almost lost her right arm because of the attack,” adding that doctors told her there is “not much left of the area between her shoulder and her elbow.”
The woman was eventually released from the hospital and was recovering at her father's house. The Rottweiler was put down last week.
The woman's estranged husband at one point wanted to “rehabilitate” the dog, then offered to shoot it, per the incident report. When animal control informed him that was illegal, he eventually agreed to have the Rottweiler euthanized.
Although Rottweilers are a large breed, they are not known to be particularly aggressive, Melissa FitzGerald, director of Otsego County Animal Control, told McClatchy News.
But FitzGerald warned that marijuana affects animals and people differently: It can give pets a fast heart rate and restlessness or can make them more aggressive than usual. She said it makes sense that some pet owners might not be aware of THC's potential adverse effects because they are rarely publicized.
“You hear all about chocolate, you hear all about grapes and raisins,” FitzGerald said. “Nowhere does it say, ‘Hey, you know what, THC and dogs don’t mix.’”
People who use weed gummies should also take care to keep them away from children, experts warn. Earlier this month, scores of children at a Jamaican primary school were hospitalized after eating “rainbow sour belts” that each contained 100 milligrams of THC — considered a heroic dose for even frequent cannabis users.
