America: Dog Fires Gun, Injuring Owner

US police announced: a man was shot after his dog jumped and accidentally fired a loaded gun

The man, from Memphis, Tennessee, was sleeping next to his partner when he was shot Tuesday morning. He sustained only a wound to his left thigh and was treated at the hospital.

A police report stated that the one-year-old pit bull, named Oreo, "got his paw caught in the trigger guard and ended up pulling the trigger." The report did not specify the type of gun used, listing the incident as an "accidental injury."

Despite the high prevalence of gun violence in the United States, animal shootings of humans are rare. Two years ago, a German shepherd shot and killed a 30-year-old man in Kansas after stepping on a hunting rifle.

In 2018, a 51-year-old man from Iowa was shot in the leg by his pit bull-Labrador mix. FOX 13 Memphis, a local news station, quoted the victim's unnamed friend in Tennessee as saying she was sleeping when the bullet went off.

"The dog is a playful animal, he likes to jump and stuff like that, and then all of a sudden the bullet went off," she was quoted as saying. She said the incident taught her to "keep the safety switch on or use the trigger lock."