A man was wounded in the buttocks after his pet dog stood on his gun.
The drama unfolded on Sunday, near the Brigham City area of Utah, when the 46-year-old unnamed man and his friend were enjoying a duck hunting trip at a bird refuge.
As a 12-gauge shotgun lay on the bow of the pair’s canoe, the canine was jumping around the boat with excitement and stepped on the gun.
The man, who was in marshy waters setting up decoys, was 10ft away from the gun when 27 pellets of birdshot hit him in the posterior, police said.
The other man, who was in the boat at the time, wasn’t injured.
Deputy sheriff Kevin Potter said: “The dog did something to make the gun discharge. I don't know if the safety device was on. It's not impossible the dog could have taken it off safety.”
Surprisingly, this odd kind of ill-fated accident wouldn’t be the first time.
As the man recovers in hospital from his wounds, we decided to look at some other cases where pets and animals have pointed the gun.
Fox shoots man
In January 2011, a wounded fox made headlines when it sought revenge by putting its paw around the trigger of a gun and shooting a man in the leg during a hunting trip in the Belarusian countryside.
The man tried to finish the animal off with the butt of a rifle when the fox took the matter into its own paws and turned the tables on the shooter.
Following the incident, a police officer in the Grodno region of the eastern European country said: “The animal fiercely resisted and in the struggle accidentally pulled the trigger with its paw.”
Cat shoots owner
A clumsy cat accidentally set off its owner’s gun while he was cooking in the kitchen.
During the incident, which took place in Michigan in 2005, Joseph Stanton, 29, was shot in the lower torso after the cat knocked the 9mm handgun off the counter
Fortunately Mr Stanton survived the incident.
Puppy shoots man
A tragedy was averted when a US man, who tried to shoot seven puppies dead, was instead shot after one of the cross-breed pups put their paw on the 3.8 calibre revolver’s trigger.
Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, of Pensacola, Florida, narrowly escaped after getting shot in the wrist. A sheriff’s report read: “Bradford was holding two puppies — one in his arms and another in his left hand — when the dog in his hand wiggled and put its paw on the trigger of the .38-caliber revolver. The gun then discharged.”
After the incident, which took place in 2004, the saved three-month-old puppies were adopted - and Mr Bradford was charged with animal cruelty.
