Man accidentally shot by his dog on bed

A dog owner in Memphis, Tennessee, was accidentally shot by his pet after the animal jumped on his bed and set off a loaded firearm, police reported on Wednesday.  

The man was sleeping beside his female partner when the incident occurred early Monday morning. He sustained a graze wound to his left thigh and was treated at a hospital before being released.

According to the police incident report, the dog, a one-year-old pit bull named Oreo, accidentally fired the gun after getting its paw stuck in the trigger guard.

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.

Two years ago, a German shepherd dog shot and killed a 30-year-old man in Kansas after 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 a playful dog, and 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.”