NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a warning about buying a dog on Facebook. I don’t want to be too critical but this man didn’t do due diligence and he bought a dangerous dog which was described as a giant teddy bear on Facebook. Not only did his American Akita nip his hand causing sepsis resulting in the amputation of both his legs below the knee, the same dog had killed his brother-in-law earlier. On both occasions the dog bite had caused sepsis because of a bacterial infection by the bacteria Capnocytophaga canimorsus. This bacterium is known to cause sepsis. He also lost bits of his face and his fingers are messed up. It is horrible. See the picture of him by clicking on the link below.
I don’t think I can show the photo of Mr Day here as it may upset advertisers. Sorry. Please click on the link below.
Picture of Mr Day is distressing. James Linsell-Clark/SWNS
Mark day, 62, developed sepsis after his dog nipped his hand. He says that his dog did not bite him but just placed his jaw around his hand which broke the skin on both sides. That was enough to introduce the bacteria into him. Three days after the bite he suffered a cardiac arrest and multiple organ failure. He had to be resuscitated twice after admission to hospital.
His dog, Ted, was put down on the orders of doctors. The same dog had, weeks earlier, bitten Mr Day’s brother-in-law, Barry Harris, 42. He also developed sepsis and died of a cardiac arrest. It looks as though Mr day was lucky to have survived his cardiac arrest but he could have gone the same way as a brother-in-law.
Mr Day has been left with eight-inch stumps below each knee. He did not realise that he had become infected until it was too late. He thought he was suffering from a hangover after the funeral of his brother-in-law.
On the day that Ted bit him he said that he had been a good dog. He was telling him that he was a good boy and wanted to give him a food treat. He said:
“Ted had been really good so I gave him a treat and was telling him he’s a good boy. He had his head back loving the attention and then he just opened his mouth and put it around my hand. Ted didn’t even bite me. He just broke the skin on both sides.”
He was discharged from hospital 82 days after being admitted on August 22 last year. The amputation took place on November 2.
Mr Dare’s friends are trying to raise £5,000 to allow him to go on holiday because he deserves it. They want to use some of the funds to modify his car to allow him to drive again.
Comment: the dog was described as a giant teddy bear on Facebook. Personally, I wouldn’t entertain the idea of buying a dog on Facebook. The only way to adopt a dog is to go to a reputable animal shelter and talk to the people there and spend time with the dogs, get to know them and let one of the dogs choose you. That way you rescue a dog that might have been euthanised at the shelter and you know their background, you know their character already to a certain extent and you’ve done some due diligence. And it is cheaper. It’s a win-win situation. To casually adopt a dog on Facebook on the say-so of an unscrupulous seller is very dangerous in my opinion.
Below are some pages on dog adoption:
