LSU Football Alum Loses Leg After Being Shot By Dog While Duck Hunting
An annual tradition for a group of friends went terribly wrong in Mississippi when former LSU offensive lineman, Matt Branch (’08 – ’11) was shot & had to have his leg amputated as a result. It’s extremely unfortunate & the way it went down is highly unusual.
From USA Today:
“At approximately 9:40 a.m., David Joe, David, Matt and I were all standing around the bed of the (Polaris) Ranger and Matt had laid his gun down flat in the bed of the Ranger and walked around on the passenger side to finish loading up,” [Micah] Heckford said. “I was at the tailgate no more than 4 feet away from him.”
Seeing that the hunters were loading the vehicle, another hunting companion, a Labrador retriever named Tito, jumped in the bed of the Ranger. As he walked around finding a place to sit, he stepped on the safety of Branch’s shotgun and pulled the trigger.
“The gun shot,” Heckford said. “Everybody looked up. The first thing I saw was Matt and within two to three seconds he realized he was hit.”
Branch began screaming and fell to the ground. The gun had shot through the bed of the vehicle and struck his left thigh.
I tried to look up the stats on duck hunting accidents, but I either suck at Google or there’s no real records kept. But for an example, if you look up “duck hunt accidents 2018″ you’ll see a long line of stories from many states regarding either negligent discharges or issues with boats capsizing. Overall, it seems like these accidents are rare & it’s a shame to see them happen to anyone.
Pets pulling triggers, even more rare… as a skeptic I tend to think they’re often most likely the scapegoat covering up actual events in these sort of cases, but stranger things have happened.
As for unintentional shootings in general, there have been 45 so far this year in 2019 alone, with several killed.
Having grown up being familiar with guns & my time in the military, I’ve seen how quickly people get complacent with safety. Sometimes it really is just a freak thing, but more often than not steps could have been taken to prevent an incident… People get so comfortable they forget how quickly one tiny lapse can change everything.
All thoughts aside I’m glad to hear Matt Branch is recovering. Sending good vibes that he’ll be back out there soon enough, enjoying time with his friends. Tito, totally up to your owners, but I hope you get to go along, too.