Although dogs are often considered man’s best friend, they are still animals — and sometimes, those feral instincts take over their otherwise cuddly demeanors. A Southend-on-Sea mom of five in Essex, England, Michelle Hempstead, was tragically caught in the middle of one of those moments between her Pomeranian pup, Pom, and her mastiff Rottweiler, Trigg.
The BBC reported that the 34-year-old was tossing McDonald’s chicken nuggets to her two pups on July 29, 2024, when tragedy struck. Hempstead found herself in the “crossfire” when Trigg snapped at Pom to grab a morsel. The dog accidentally bit her armpit and upper arm in such a way that it pierced an artery, causing significant blood loss and ultimately leading to organ failure. By the next morning, Hempstead was declared dead.
“She liked to throw them up in the air, and the little one, Pom, was going for the big one — not aggressively, but he used to growl and snap when he wanted to get the nugget first,” Samuel West, Hempstead’s partner, explained during the inquest, according to The U.S. Sun.
West described the event as a “freak accident” and insisted the dogs had never shown any real signs of aggression. West was initially arrested after the incident but was later released without any charges.
Senior Coroner Lincoln Brookes determined the death was the result of “an unintended consequence of an otherwise innocent act.”
“The double tragedy about this is that she and the rest of her family suffered a terrible bereavement only a few weeks beforehand, with the death of her daughter. She was still reeling from that,” he added.
Hempstead’s mother, Karen, described her daughter as “loving, resilient, not afraid to speak her mind, hardworking, caring, extremely brave, resourceful, and generous,” during the hearing surrounding her death, per the BBC.
The Rottweiler, Trigg, was ordered to be “seized and destroyed” following the incident.
“You didn’t have to worry about him with anything — he wasn’t vicious in any way, shape, or form,” West told the court, noting that Hempstead occasionally fed Trigg food straight from her mouth.
