Its a Dog's life - and Death

Dog evades threats of tobacco - but not traffic

A 24-year-old Dachshund with a 10-a-day cigarette habit has been knocked down and killed - on his way to the tobacconist's shop.

General Edi munched his way through half a packet of cigarettes every day since he was a puppy, said owner Wolfgang Treirler.

But Edi died after he was hit by a car during a walk to his favourite cigarette shop in Graz, central Austria.

"Poor Edi dashed out in the road in excitement right in front of a car. There was nothing anyone could do," said one neighbour.

Wolfgang said of Edi's habit before he died: "His old owner abandoned him and so we took him in and noticed straight away that he was in the habit of eating cigarettes.

"He eats the tobacco and the paper, and then chews a while on the filter before spitting it out. On average he eats about 10 cigarettes a day, but all of his teeth are fine."

Local vet Harald Mayr said: "Nicotine normally leads to poisoning in dogs, but in this case the animal obviously became addicted to it which increased its level of tolerance."

Ananova