Dog Guards Owner's Body for 48 Hours in Snow

A Dog named Alpha guarded the body of his master & his friend from wild animals while itself starving and being injured in the snowy & extreme cold hills of Bir, Himachal Pradesh.

Dogs protect their owners, I have heard this but they protect their owners to this extent, I didn’t know. Recently, a German Shepherd dog named Alpha guarded the body of his master Abhinandan Gupta at a height of 9,000 feet amid snow for 48 hours in Bir, Himachal Pradesh. According to the reports, Abhinandan along with his dog Alpha & his friend Parnita Bal Sahib were visiting Bir Billing, Himachal Pradesh from Pune for tourism by a private car. On their way back, the duo along with Alpha had to leave their car midway and start walking due to heavy snowfall. While walking in heavy snowfall, both Abhinandan & Parnita slipped and fell into a deep gorge (a small narrow valley between the hills). They tried to come out of the gorge but failed. In the attempt to get out both got injuries too. Later, both died due to acute cold & injuries. When Abhinandan’s brother-in-law failed to contact Abhinandan multiple times, he made a distress call to the local police. A rescue team of paragliders and the police started the rescue operation and found Alpha guarding both the dead bodies two days later on 6th February 2024. The rescuers saw Alpha (crying with pain & grief) wailing and circling around the bodies. When he saw the rescuers, he rushed up to them and wailed even louder as if he was hoping that the team would save his master.

According to the rescuers, the surrounding signs showed that wild animals like black bears and leopards attacked the dead bodies but Alpha fought and did not let them take the body away or eat it. Alpha too got injured while fighting the wild animals. Alpha didn’t leave the body alone at all. He didn’t eat anything for two days and braved through the harsh cold weather & his injuries. Despite starving for 2 days, Alpha refused to eat anything offered by the rescuers until the bodies were retrieved. He stood and watched the rescuers retrieve the dead bodies and even accompanied them to Bir. The photos of Alpha guarding the bodies and this whole story has gone viral on social media. Bir Station House Officer (SHO) Dalip Saklani described the incident as "heart-wrenching". This is just yet another example of how loving, caring, selfless and brave dogs are. No wonder they are called ‘a man’s best friend’.

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