Hero dog loses a leg after jumping up and taking a bullet in doomed bid to save its elderly owners from armed robbers in South Africa

• Dog Merie attempted to save her owners during a break-in at their home 
• The pet took a bullet as she put herself in between them and armed robbers
• Merie survived the attack but has since had her right front leg amputated

A hero dog has lost her leg after she attempted to save her elderly owners from armed robbers in South Africa and took a bullet in the leg.

Merie was once a street dog but rescued by the elderly couple and taken in by the family in Cape Town.

And when armed intruders broke into the house she tried to repay her owners by protecting them from the hail of gunfire.

Pet Merie, who jumped up to protect her owners when their home was raided by armed robbers. She took a bullet in the right leg, which had to be amputated 

She was struck in her right front leg after she began barking and howling in a bid to rattle the men, who fled.

Unfortunately her elderly owners did not survive the attack but their adult children managed to escape.

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You are celebrating the first anniversary of the foundation. What would you say motivated you to found the foundation?

Edna Amuche Nwobi

I had diabetes. This made me to study about the disease. I realised that it is killing people needlessly. This is because, people do not know how to control the disease. As a food scientist, through my research, I found out that the type of food people eat as well as their lifestyles can make them susceptible to diabetes. So, when I recovered from the disease, I resolved to help people, especially the poor in rural communities and Lagos, to control the disease. I found out that people die from diabetes due to lack of knowledge. Diabetes is a killer disease, but it can be controlled through food habits and healthy lifestyles. Even with diabetes, people can still live long if they know what to do.

Since that one year, what are the achievements of the foundation?

Through the foundation, I have already authored a book titled Healing Diabetes With Food. Through the book and my works, the foundation has created awareness ABOUT DIABETES in parts of Nigeria, United States of America (USA) and Canada. People who read the book call in for help and consultations. We help them through telephone calls, text messages and person-to-person treatment, to control their blood sugar level. The foundation has continued to carry out diabetic education, care, giving out free drugs to thousands of people. We have reached out to seven communities in Anambra State. These communities are Igbo Ukwu, Ndikelionwu, Nnokwa, Nibo, Mba Ukwu and Amesi, all in Anambra State.

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CAPTION: Picture Credit: en.wikipedia.org

In an address on the impact on business of an epidemic which has claimed more than 5,400 lives in west Africa, Machel said the heavy toll was "unacceptable".

"Ebola has exposed the extreme weaknesses of our institutions as governments, countries which are affected were found totally unprepared," added the South African icon's widow.

"It's time Africa began to give real value to human life, in other words African human lives," she told health sector and business representatives.

"Let's take lessons from this outbreak," she said of the epidemic ravaging Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. "Yesterday it was HIV/AIDS, today it's Ebola, tomorrow it can be something else."

"We can't continue to be unprepared as we are," she said. "We don't seem to have learned from the HIV epidemic."

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