A grieving woman has told how a "big softie" dog killed her brother and left her husband needing his legs amputated by just 'nipping them' with his bacteria-infested teeth.
Pauline Day, 62, revealed how the Japanese Akita called Ted tore her family's life apart after her brother bought him as a pet for £1,500.
The family had no idea that Ted - who resembled a "giant teddy bear" - was a silent killer with deadly bacteria crawling inside his mouth.
But in July, Pauline's brother Barry Harris, 46, died at his home three days after Ted snapped at his arm, causing an infection and sending him into cardiac arrest. And just a month later Ted bit Pauline's husband Mark, 61, as he walked the dog on the day of Barry's funeral.
Mark, who's been hospitalised since late August, has had all his left-hand fingers amputated and will lose both legs by next week due to sepsis caused by Ted's toxic mouth.
Pauline, from Colchester, Essex, said: "They weren't even attacked. Ted literally just broke the skin on my husband and my brother. It was the softest dog but it had food issues. Whenever it was near food it was so aggressive. We think it was mistreated as a puppy."
Barry, a groundworker, bought Ted from a private Facebook seller in a London flat in May this year for some "good company" after going through a break-up.
The seller told Barry that Ted, who was 15-months-old, was well trained but when he got home he found that the pooch didn't even respond to his name.
On July 7 - after less than six weeks together - Ted bit Barry as he was trying to remove an animal bone from his mouth while out on a walk. Three days later, Barry tragically died at his home after his heart stopped.
Tragedy struck again on Barry's funeral on August 19 when Mark took Ted for a morning walk and was nipped by the dog on his hand. Three days later - he was rushed to hospital with a 39C temperature, before he went into cardiac arrest and suffered multiple organ failures.
Doctors told Pauline that Mark's condition was "100 per cent" due to a bacterial infection from a dog.
Mark, a builder, has been in hospital ever since and has lost parts of both legs and seven fingers.
Pauline said: "It's like something out of a nightmare. You just don't believe this has happened. The shock of my brother was one thing and then my husband. It's just surreal."
Pauline had Ted put down on the same day that doctors said that Mark's condition was due to bacteria from a dog.
She also checked the paperwork that Ted's owner gave to Barry when he bought the dog earlier this year and found that he had no vaccination history.
"In the booklet, there was nothing with vaccinations. They gave him a false history."
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