A bull terrier ate crack cocaine—then killed its owner as a film crew watched, police say

A Staffordshire Bull Terrier mauled and killed its owner as a BBC film crew that was working on a documentary about drugs looked on in horror earlier this year, according to The Guardian.

Before the attack, the dog had likely ingested crack cocaine, fueling its attack on the owner, a veterinary toxicologist said. The dog’s owner had also taken cocaine before his dog mauled him, according to The Telegraph.

The film crew had gone with the dog’s owner, Mario Perivoitos, 41, to his home in north London shortly after 10 p.m. on a night in March to work on documentary called “Drugs Map of Britain.”

Then, out of nowhere, Perivoitos began to have a seizure.

That’s when the dog named Major attacked, crushing Perivoitos’ laryx and bloodying his neck and face, according to The Independent.

“I heard shouting – ‘Get him off! Get him off me!’” Perivoitos’ neighbor Geoff Morgan, 52, told the Guardian. Morgan said that he lived in the apartment below Perivoitos.

“He was shouting really loudly,” Morgan added. “He was bleeding from his neck. There was a lot of blood.”

In the apartment, the film crew tried wrestling the dog off of Perivoitos, according to The Telegraph. But by the time the show’s producer was able to pry the dog off, the owner had already sustained fatal injuries, the Telegraph reports. The crew wasn’t filming during the attack.

Coronoer Andrew Walker confirmed that the dog attack was the cause of death.

“It is likely that he was experiencing an epileptic shock, which caused the dog to nip his face before biting his neck,” Walker told The Telegraph. “The film crew telephoned an ambulance while attempting to get the dog off Mr Perivoitos.”

It took police nearly 10 minutes to get into the apartment where Perivoitos lived because it was heavily locked, according to The Independent.

Perivoitos was taken to a major trauma hospital when authorities arrived at the scene, but died after midnight.

“The dog was eight times the drug drive limit,” said Nicholas Carmichael, a veterinary toxicology expert.

Both cocaine and morphine were found in the dog’s urine, according to the Independent.

“The dog had clearly taken it and, whether it had eaten it or taken it in by smoke, it is likely to have been a factor in the dog's behaviour," Carmichael added.

The dog will likely be killed, police told The Independent, though it is not clear if that’s already happened.

This story was originally published September 12, 2017 at 9:30 AM with the headline "A bull terrier ate crack cocaine—then killed its owner as a film crew watched, police say."