A brave dog—named Tommy—in India sacrificed his life to save his family from a raging wild elephant after it broke through the fence of their property, Daily Star reported.
Tommy was at home with his five-member family at Kanthalloor in Idukki district of Kerala, when an elephant got stuck in a barbed-wire fence while trying to enter the property of Tommy's owner Soman.
Eventually, the giant animal broke the fence and charged towards where Soman, wife Lithia and children Abhilash, Amrita, and Valsamma were inside.
But before the elephant had a chance to reach them, Tommy had already freed himself from his leash and taken on the elephant, biting the leg of the larger animal.
However, the bite sent the elephant further into fury, and it tried to suffocate the dog with its trunk while stabbing it's sharp tusks into the dog’s stomach.
Tommy managed to scratch the elephant’s eye amid agonizing pain which stunned the beast and forced him to let him go.
The hero dog held on to life despite his grievous injuries the next day.
His death took place on International Dog Day: Thursday, August 26.