Your Pet or your Privacy?
Horror stories and video of animal and child accidents with paper shredders.
With Identity theft on the rise, paper shredders are becoming a common household item. The question is do you have to choose between your identity and the paws of your pets?
Check out the top stories on the net where animals and kids have been affected by paper shredders.
#1 Video Clip of Dog Shredder Accident
Click the picture to the right to watch the Fox News Story about a dog who’s tongue was caught in the shredder.
(Will take you to their site)
#2 From Snopes.com
“Night before last I was presented with a paper shredder containing most of the tongue, ripped out by the base, and a very pretty sweet 1 1/2 year old lab cross whose owners euthanized her.”
#3 From Carabinshaw.com
“They started cutting the blades because there was no other way to get his fingers undone,” she said. “It was like he could feel it. He just started screaming again and I’m holding him and trying to explain to him that it’s going to be OK. It’s going to be OK.
When you meet Hallie Mouritsen, you cant tell that there’s anything wrong with this beautiful five year-old girl. But if you look closer at Hallie’s left hand, her fingers are cut off at the knuckle. The doctor described them as being “crushed, mutilated and non-viable.”
#4 From PetPlace.com
“Before he could answer I saw the most horrific sight of my life, Shelby’s tongue stuck inside our paper shredder. Our other dog Sophia, thinking Shelby was being attacked was pulling relentlessly and with all her might on the shredder, not knowing she was making matters worse. Even though in shock of the situation we worked as fast as we could to get Shelby to the vet. We had to pry Sophia off and put her in the bathroom. In that time Shelby had bit her own tongue off. I suppose in animal instinct.”
#5 From bark-n-blog.com
“Phei suddenly decided to grab hold of the paper being fed into the shredder when her tongue was taken up into the machine. Please know that this was not an “auto-on” shredder”
#6 From DogFlu.ca
“Her tongue, which slipped past the finger-guard, activated the machine, trapping Tara and leaving her struggling violently in agony.”
#7 From the Scotsman News
“The dog’s tongue looked like something that had come through a pasta machine – just strings hanging down.”
#8 From Helping Animals.com
“There have been at least five dogs’ tongues caught in shredders and reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and not all of the dogs survived.”
Finally some advice on what to do (from bark-n-blog.com)
“Keep your calm about you and immediately give (”force”) your dog to drink from a bowl of ice water….this will slow the bleeding and help clotting to begin. Tongues cannot be stitched, so quick action at home with the ice water is your best option. Also, if you are inclined to embrace holistic modalities, a dose of Hypericum (an homeopathic remedy kept on hand by many of us for acute application) works wonders in ebbing the flow of blood.”
Shredder Companies Start to take notice
From the San Francisco Chronicle
“However, as with many pieces of equipment, a shredder can pose safety risks to pets. Now there’s a new paper shredder designed to ensure the safety of household pets – specifically the ears and tongues of Fido and Fluffy. The PS-79Ci shredder, by Fellowes, features a patented SafeSense technology that automatically disables the shredder when it senses that pets are too close to the paper entry. An electronic sensor surrounds the paper entry and shuts down the machine immediately when it comes in contact with the energy field created by larger pets.”
Fellowes actually has a full new line of “safesense” paper shredders out there, but I’m not sure if all of them are specifically meant be safe for pets.
