A woman is breastfeeding her staffordshire bull terrier puppy because she wants the pooch to protect her baby daughter.
Kura Tumanako, from Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, starting breastfeeding the dog after her baby girl stopped taking her milk because her nipples were too big for the baby.
“I didn’t want to waste it so I gave it to Honey Boy,” she explains.
Honey Boy has been suckling at his owner’s nipple twice a day for the past week.
Kura, who is two months’ pregnant, says that breastfeeding the dog is not painful, but ‘It’s a little bit ticklish”.
Kura plans to wean the puppy off in six weeks.
Kura’s baby Honey Pauline Philomina Flo is now taking bottled milk.
“I wanted to raise it (the pup) with my baby,” Ms Tumanako said today. “I wanted to bring it up with a baby. It will protect her as they grow up.”
The Hawke’s Bay woman does not care what people think about her breastfeeding the puppy.
“It’s my life, my responsibility. I make my own choices,” she said. “I’m going to look after me, my baby and my puppy.”
According to Victoria University associate professor of anthropology Jeff Sissons women in Papua New Guinea hill tribes breastfeed pigs.
