Trigger The Dog Steps On Gun, Shoots Bird Shot At Point-Blank Range Into Owner’s Foot

You can’t make this stuff up. An Indiana hunter was shot over the weekend by an unexpected perp — her 10-year-old chocolate Labrador Retriever.

But don’t blame the dog, he didn’t mean to shoot his owner. However, he was given a rather opportune name — Trigger.

This bizarre accident happened in a Fish and Wildlife area in northern Indiana in a town called North Webster, 140 miles north of Indianapolis. Allie Carter, 25, took her dog, Trigger, there for a weekend hunting trip.

Surely, she wasn’t expecting to spend the rest of the weekend in the hospital after that same dog shot her.

About 10 a.m., the state’s Department of Natural Resources received several reports that someone had been shot while out hunting water fowl, WANE reported. They arrived to find Carter, suffering injuries to her left foot and toes.

The story about how she managed to be felled at the paws of her loyal dog came out later.

According to NBC News and Fox 59, Allie laid her 12-gauge shotgun on the ground at her feet. Then she repositioned herself (Fox 59 said she was getting up) when an unexpected shot rang out.

Trigger the dog, 11, had stepped on the trigger on the gun, depressing it and letting off a close-range shot.

The bullet struck his owner square in the foot.

Perhaps Carter had been a tad careless. After all, she did leave the safety off when she laid the gun on the ground.

In a press release about the shooting, the DNR didn’t ignore the opportunity to poke a little fun at the fact that the dog who shot his owner was “ironically and aptly named Trigger.”

Allie likely wasn’t laughing. Her point-blank injury to the foot required her to spend the weekend in two hospitals — a local one, where she was immediately transferred, and then another in the city of Fort Wayne.

Her injuries weren’t life-threatening — her dog had shot bird shot pellets into her foot and toes. According to Indy Star, she has since been released.

In the state of Indiana, people born before Dec. 31, 1986 — like Allie — must take a certified hunter education course before they can purchase a hunting license. Unfortunately for her, she hadn’t taken the safety course.

That’s because people can get up to three hunter’s apprentice license — which she had — alongside another hunter who has taken the safety course. So Carter won’t face any charges.

However, conservation officials are using the incident to educate the public about gun safety. Their advice: always use the safety mechanism and point the muzzle in a safe direction.

In his seven years working for the state, Conservation Officer Jonathon Boyd said he recalls only one other time a dog accidentally shot his owner. That time, a man hunting rabbits leaned his gun against a tree. Then came along his rabbit-sniffing beagle, who ended up stepping on it.

Boyd didn’t say where the unnamed man had been shot, or the outcome of that bizarre incident.

As for Allie, she hasn’t spoken to the press about her unfortunate hunting tale.

Blind Woman Hit By Mini Bus Reunited With Hero Guide Dog https://t.co/Cvx3ppd851 pic.twitter.com/xC0WF0hm2j

— WCBS 880 (@wcbs880) October 26, 2015

In a story that will redeem man’s best friend a bit, a blind woman in New York was reunited with her guide dog, a Golden Retriever named Figo, who saved her life this summer when she was hit by a minibus, CBS Local reported.

Audrey Stone, 62, were both hit by the bus while crossing the street. Figo saw the bus coming and threw himself in front of it to protect his owner.

“And then he broke away from my hand and flung himself at the bus, like Superman, he just flew, he jumped up at the bus to stop it,” Stone said.

She fractured her elbow, ankle, and three ribs, and Figo broke his right front leg. He wouldn’t leave Audrey’s side until EMTs arrived.

They spent the next four months apart, recovering.

“I was glad to see him, you know,” she said. “I told him he’s home, so he knows he’s home.”

[Photo By JPagetRFPhotos / Shutterstock]