Dog Shoots Man!

Dog Shoots Man! Now that is news! Remember the old saying about “…dog biting man is not news, but a man biting a dog is news….”? Well, “man biting a dog” has become commonplace nowadays. You see or read about it in the news several times a year now — probably by nut-cases, or people just looking for their 15 minutes of fame. However, twice right after Thanksgiving, we got some really hot news: Dog Shoots Man! In the first instance, reported in the Deseret News in Brigham City, Utah, a man was shot by his dog while out duck hunting:

BRIGHAM CITY — It wasn’t his dog’s bark or bite that had a Brigham City man concerned, it was his aim.

A man was recovering Wednesday after being shot over the weekend by his dog.

A 46-year-old Brigham City man and a friend were duck hunting Sunday about 8:30 a.m. on the north end of the Great Salt Lake near the bird refuge, about 10 miles west of Brigham City.

The two had their canoe-like boat in a shallow marsh area when the man got out of the boat to either set up or collect decoys. He laid his 12-gauge shotgun across the bow of the boat, said Box Elder County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Kevin Potter.

After the man got out of the boat, a dog inside the vessel jumped up on the bow and stepped on the gun. The gun fired and shot the man in the buttocks.

Medical crews later removed 27 pellets of birdshot.

“(The dog) did something to make the gun discharge,” Potter said. “I don’t know if the safety device was on. It’s not impossible the dog could have taken it off safety.”

The men called 911 and walked to the main road to wait for emergency crews. The fact the man was wearing waders likely helped prevent a more serious injury, Potter said. The gun was fired from approximately 10 feet away, he said.

Potter did not have information on the type of dog that stepped on the shotgun.

Even though the two were duck hunting near a bird refuge, Potter said it was legal.

In the second incident about 2 weeks later, as reported on the MyFoxTampaBay.com website, a Florida man was shot by his bulldog while driving out to their hunting spot for that day:

WESLEY CHAPEL – A 78-year-old Dade City man was injured Saturday morning during a hunting accident near Wesley Chapel.

Billy E. Brown suffered a gunshot wound to his right thigh just above the knee and was transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa. His condition is not known.

According to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report Brown, his friend and Bull Dog named ‘Eli’ set out early Saturday to hunt deer. The two men have done so every year for the past 25 years investigators say.

As the men were riding down a bumpy, lime-rock road in Wesley Chapel towards their hunting stands, the dog became excited. He apparently bumped a Browning 308 rifle causing it to discharge.

The bullet struck Brown who was driving in an area approximately 1.5 miles into a wooded area near the intersection of Old Pasco Rd. and Gillette Rd.

The investigation into the incident continues.

Apparently both victims are recovering, but one won’t be able to sit comfortably for quite a while, and the other will probably be limping for a long time.

Here’s a point to consider: in both cases police have not said whether or not the dogs are co-operating in the investigations! Do you think maybe man’s best friend has finally turned on us?

If this keeps up, do you think we will get to the point that when Dog Shoots Man, it will no longer be newsworthy?

Read more here: Utah; Florida