US man shot dead by pet dog in freak hunting accident

A man from Kansas on a hunting trip was accidentally shot and killed by a pet dog after the animal stepped on the rifle in the back of a car, according to Sumner County Sheriff's Office.

Resident of Wichita, Joseph Austin Smith, aged 30, died on the scene Saturday morning minutes after emergency services arrived and tried CPR and other life-saving measures on him, according to a press statement from the Sumner County Sheriff's Office.

The deseased got inside the passenger seat of a pickup truck that had hunting gear, a loaded rifle, and a dog in the back, according to the Sheriff's office. It was then that the dog, who belonged to the owner of the truck, "stepped on the rifle causing the weapon to discharge," the statement said.

The shooting took place north of the city of Gueda Springs, on the 1600 Block of East 80th Street South.

The driver of the pickup truck was unharmed, according to NBC.

This is not the first time a dog accidentally triggered a gun and killed or wounded a human in a vehicle.

A 2015 Washington Post analysis of 10 dog shootings between 2004 and 2015 found that half of the incidents took place during a hunting accident, and 40 percent happened in a vehicle.

In Russia, a similar accident took place involving a man and his dog on a hunting trip in 2018. After being released from the back of a pickup truck, the dog's paw caught onto the trigger of a gun aimed at its owner's stomach.

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