Iowa man recovering after being shot by hunting dog in freak accident

DES MOINES, Iowa - A hunter is recovering after he was shot in the leg at close range by his dog, who stepped on his shotgun and tripped the trigger, an official said Tuesday.

James Harris, 37, of Tama, Iowa, was hit in the calf Saturday, the opening day of pheasant season, said Alan Foster, a spokesman with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

"He had surgery and is doing pretty well," he said. "He took between 100-120 pellets in about a four-inch (10-centimetre) circle to his calf."

Harris was listed in good condition Tuesday, officials at University Hospitals in Iowa City said.

Harris was hunting with a group about five kilometres north of Grinnell. The group shot a bird, and when Harris went to get it, he put his gun on the ground and crossed a fence. As he crossed the fence, his hunting dog stepped on the gun, Foster said.

The gun was about a metre away from his leg.

The dog's name wasn't Cheney by any chance, was it?

This document is clearly fake. They use the term 'kilometres'. What's that? We don't have those here. Especially not in Iowa.

I kinda like the idea of a guy getting shot by his own gun right after killing an animal. I hope it IS true. But Beam's right.

Guy is an idiot for walking in front of an unattended, loaded weapon. Problems like these have a tendency to take care of themselves.

I actually looked at this in Google and found the original AP article which is written without reference to metres, kilometres and centimetres.

Apparently the version posted here is the canadianese version from the www.cbc.ca news source.

The article did go on, however, to mention that the dog was not hurt...

The article did go on, however, to mention that the dog was not hurt...

which is the important part...

man that is so funny... "man's best friend shoots man"