Date: Sep 17, 2004 - 02:49 PM
Taken from the
daily record
DAN HAD DEADLY SNAKES AND SPIDERS.. BUT HE GOT BLINDED BY A PUPPY
Sep 15 2004
Shears horror in grooming shop
By Jonathan Lessware
A MAN who collects poisonous snakes and deadly spiders has been blinded ... by a puppy.
Pet shop boss Dan Johnstone lives at home with alligators and other dangerous reptiles.
But it was a tussle with a springer spaniel which led to a pair of scissors plunging into the25-year--old's right eye.
He has been left with no vision in the eye and has had to give upthe collection he has been building since he was 10.
The accident happened when Dan and girlfriend Karen Scutt, of Earlston, Berwickshire,were clipping the spaniel's claws at their dog grooming business.
They had placed the pooch on a table at their shop in nearby ***** Boswells.
But when Karen was unable to get near the puppy because of his biting, Dan took over.
As he tried to snip the hair from its paws with special shears, the dog suddenly snapped.
It jumped to bite his face, but instead got his hand, which resulted in the blades plunging into his eye.
Doctors in Edinburgh said Dan was unlikely to regain the sight in the eye. And because he no longer has peception of depth, he can now no longer handle his creatures.
Dan said he always knew keeping snakes in his house was dangerous, but he never thought his most serious injury would come from a puppy.
He said: 'I suppose there is an irony that I have kept these deadly creatures which would kill you in an instant, and it was a puppy which has left me like this.
'The dog was in to be groomed but Karen wasn't very happy working on it.
' Weknew it wasa 'problem dog', but I had never given up on grooming one in the last 10 years.
'I was trimming the front paw with my shears and, with no warning, she went to bite me in the face.
'She knocked the hand with the shears into my face. I felt an instant sting but I knew it was serious when I stood back, looked down and saw the fluid from the eye running down my face and on to myT-shirt.
'It was horrific. One of the blades went through the centre of my eyeball and the other went through my eyelid and out the top of my eyebrow.'
Dan spent a day in hospital, where doctors put eight stitches in the eyeball and used a laser in a bid to repair its shape and remove damaged ligaments.
Doctors will next month assess if any vision in the eye can be saved.
In the past, Dan's face has been cut open by a Cayman alligator, he has had stitches from numerous snake bites and has even been savaged by a rabbit.
But he said the dog's temper was one of the worst he had come across.
Dan hopes to continue running his pet shop and grooming service, but has removed most of his animal collection which filled his two-bedroom house.
His snakes, which include a rattlesnake and cobras, are now on permanent loan to Liverpool School of Medicine and his three alligators are set to be rehoused.
Dan said: 'Karen was sad for me, but she may be glad to be getting some of the house back.'
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