Most pet owners worry about accidents like chewed slippers, broken flowerpots, or the occasional stolen sandwich. A Pennsylvania man, however, can now add “survived being shot by my own dog” to the list of things he never expected to happen on a quiet Monday night.
On Nov. 11, at around 11 p.m., Shillington police officers arrived at a home on State Street in response to a shooting. There, they found a 53-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his lower back. As first reported by the local news station, the man explained that the shooter was not an intruder, a neighbor, or a disgruntled family member. It was his beloved pet dog.
The bizarre incident happened while the man was cleaning his shotgun. He reportedly placed the firearm on his bed, and in that brief window, his dog jumped onto the mattress. Suddenly, it somehow triggered the shotgun, sending a blast into the man’s lower back. Corporal Michael Schoone of the Shillington Police Department told WFMZ that investigators are still trying to determine exactly how the gun fired:
“He’s not sure what stage of cleaning he was in at the time, so it’s unsure if the dog’s paw may have gotten caught inside the trigger and the safety was off, or if there was some sort of manufacturer malfunction. That’s unknown at this time.”
Fortunately, the man was conscious enough to be able to call for help. He was quickly taken to Reading Hospital, where he underwent surgery. Police say he is expected to survive, but will need a substantial period of recovery. Both the accidental shooting and his survival are miraculous, given that dogs do not usually come with firearms safety certifications.
Cpl. Schoone used the opportunity to reiterate basic gun-safety rules for anyone who cleans firearms around pets, kids, or anyone with the ability to jump unexpectedly:
“Obviously, you should be treating every weapon as if it’s loaded… This was the perfect storm. Just the right place at the right time, or the wrong time.”
Dogs shooting their owners isn’t new
If this story feels unusually bizarre, what’s even surprising is that such incidents aren’t entirely new. In March, a 39-year-old Tennessee man was accidentally shot by his pit bull named Oreo (via Money Control). In another incident from Jan. 2023, a 30-year-old Kansas man was driving with a friend’s dog in his pickup truck. Bizarrely, the canine stepped on a loaded rifle in the back seat and fatally shot the man (via PEOPLE).
But of course, pets have also saved countless lives by alerting owners to fires, intruders, and medical emergencies. But now and then, an unlucky human ends up on the wrong end of a freak accident that belongs in both a cautionary tale and a comedy script.
