Dog named 'Trigger' shoots owner with shotgun

A US woman has had a painful reminder that the safety catch should always come first after she was shot by her dog while on a hunting trip over the weekend.

Allie Carter, 25, was hunting waterfowl with Trigger, a brown Labrador, in the north of her home state of Indiana.

According Department of Natural Resources official Jonathon Boyd, the mishap occurred when Ms Carter placed her 12-gauge shotgun on the ground, only for the 11-year-old pooch – apparently eager to live up to his name – to step on the weapon, which fired.

Ms Carter suffered injuries to her toes and left foot, but has since been released from hospital, according to Mr Boyd, who stressed the importance of undertaking a hunting education course before heading into the wild, which Ms Carter had not done.

Strangely enough, it is not the first time Mr Boyd has seen a dog shoot its owner – a seven-year conservation veteran, he told Reuters of a similar incident involving a rabbit hunter whose beagle stepped on his rifle, which was leaned against a tree, leading to a similar outcome.

Source: Reuters/NBC