A man has been found mauled to death by his own dog while on a walk.
According to police, a 33-year-old man was discovered lifeless in a ditch by a passerby in Lohne, Germany last Thursday, with the dog refusing to leave the man's body even when emergency responders arrived on the scene, as reported by The Mirror.
The dog was later confirmed to be of the American Bulldog breed. A postmortem found the man's injuries consistent with a dog attack, and investigators believe the man's own pet was responsible for his death.
The canine has since been taken into custody and is awaiting assessment in an animal shelter. Efforts by emergency services to provide help to the man are said to have been hampered by the dog's behaviour.
Dog expert Vanessa Bokr said it was likely the dog had attacked its owner after being stopped from chasing something.
"I can well imagine that the dog might have seen something, become agitated, and its owner tried to stop it. If the social dynamics within which interactions are acceptable aren't clearly defined, then things can escalate. The dog would have turned on its owner, attacked him, and then guarded the body," she told German pet owners' magazine PetBook.
American Bulldogs - a breed distinct to and much older than the American XL Bully, which is banned in the UK - have been linked to a number of fatal attacks in Britain, Europe and the US in recent years.
Just last weekend, a 3-year-old was mauled to death in the American state of Minnesota after the child climbed into an American Bulldog enclosure at his grandmother's house.
