Pet Dog Shoots Owner In Leg In Freak Accident, Man Hospitalized

An Iowa man was shot in the leg when his dog accidentally pressed the trigger on his gun, while the two were playing together Wednesday.

Richard Remme, 51, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, was playing with his Pitbull Labrador, Balew, on the couch when the dog accidentally set off the owner’s firearm, which was on him at the time.

“It’s a Ruger 9 mm, and it’s got a safety on it,” Remme told Messenger News. “I was lying on the couch, and we were horsing around, me and the dog. And I was tossing him off my lap, and he was jumping back on my lap.”

“And I carry in a belly band, under my bib overalls. And apparently he bumped the safety one time, and when he bounded back over one of his toes went right down into the trigger guard. It has a trigger safety as well as a thumb safety, and he managed to hit both of them, and it discharged and went into my leg, did no major damage to anything,” Remme added.

He said, initially he did not realize what had happened until he felt a burning sensation in his stomach and his trouser turning purple.

“I’m looking around to see where it went to, and I realized it went in my leg. That’s when I called 911,” Remme said.

Remme said he did not hold the incident against his dog but Balew apparently took its mistake pretty hard. “The dog’s a big wuss,” he said. “The poor dog laid down beside me and cried, because he thought he was in trouble for doing something wrong.

Police and the UnityPoint Health responded to Remme’s house at 10:50 a.m. local time (11: 50 a.m. EDT). Remme was rushed to Trinity Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Fort Dodge Police Chief Roger Porter corroborated Remme’s story about the firearm accidentally going off when the dog stepped on it.

“He has a license to carry, and a license for the gun,” Porter said. “I’ve never heard of that. I’ve heard of guns dropping and going off on the floor, and horsing around and guns going off. I can’t say I’ve heard a dog story before.”

However, Porter added that such freak accidents can happen especially when a firearm is involved. “Guns aren’t toys, and they can go off. All it takes is a little pressure on the hammer or the trigger to get it to go,” he said.

Remme was released from the hospital on the same day, in the afternoon. However, he said he would need to undergo surgery in the near future to remove the bullet that is lodged in his leg.

In another incident, earlier this month, a pet dog mauled a 3-year-old infant in Los Angeles California, in what the police called a “true tragedy.” The incident happened when the infant’s grandmother, who was supposed to babysit her, stepped away momentarily to get the feeding bottle.