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Dog Named Trigger Shoots His Owner With Shotgun

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 05:57 PST, Oct 28, 2015

A dog named Trigger shot his owner in Indiana. Allie Carter, 25, was hunting waterfowl over the weekend when the accident occurred.

Trigger stepped on his owner’s 12-gauge shotgun and shot her in the foot. The Indiana woman reportedly sustained wounds from the bird shot to her left foot and toes. She has been released from the hospital and is now recovering from the hunting accident at home, BBC reports.

Trigger, a chocolate Labrador retriever, was on a weekend hunting trip with Carter at the Tri-County Fish and Wildlife Area in northern Indiana when the incident occurred. The public hunting area is near the town of North Webster, which is approximately 140 miles north of Indianapolis.

Allie Carter had not completed a hunter education course, according to Indiana conservation officers who investigated the incident.

Carter placed her 12-gauge shotgun on the ground at her feet, and then she re-positioned herself just before Trigger the dog shot her, according to both NBC News and Fox 59. As she may have been getting up from the ground, Trigger stepped on the trigger, and a shot rang out.

Trigger, 11, shot his owner at close range and struck her directly in her foot. The accidental hunting injury required Allie Carter to spent the weekend at two separate hospitals. She was initially transported to a local medical care facility and then transferred to a larger hospital in Fort Wayne.

Carter did not suffer life-threatening injuries after being shot by her dog. The state of Indiana reportedly requires that individuals born after December 31, 1986, like Carter, to take a certified hunter education course before they can purchase a valid hunting license, the Indy Star reports.

Those individuals impacted by the Indiana birth date hunting law can garner a hunter’s apprentice license, which is good for up to three years. Carter had a valid apprentice license. This type of hunting license requires the novice to be accompanied by a hunter who has completed the safety course. Carter will not face any criminal charges or face a revocation of her license due to the shooting accident. She reportedly did not have the safety on the shotgun set when it was placed on the ground.

Indiana conservation officer Jonathon Boyd said he could only recall one other accidental shooting by a dog occurring during his seven years working for the state. During the earlier canine shooting accident, a man was hunting rabbits and placed his gun against a tree. His beagle hunting dog stepped on the gun, and it fired.

Over the course of the past five years, three Americans have been shot by dogs, according to a report by the Washington Post. There have been 10 such incidents in the United States since 2004, four of which happened in Florida.

Accidental dog shootings are not unique to America. In 2012, a French hunter had his hand amputated after his dog jumped on him and caused his shotgun to fire. In New Zealand in 2010, a man was also shot by his dog.

The majority of the accidental canine shooting incidents were reportedly hunting accidents. In 2013, a Minnesota hunter was shot in the leg after his dog jumped off a boat and caused the shotgun to fire. A hunter in Utah left his shotgun in his boat, and when the dog jumped on it, the weapon fired bird shot towards the man’s rear end in 2011. Also in the same year, a bulldog in Florida was riding in a vehicle on the way to go hunting with his owner when he caused a rifle inside the car to discharge.

Allie Carter has not yet made a public statement about being shot by her dog, Trigger.

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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