Both cocaine and morphine were found in the blood of a Staffordshire Bull Terrier dog that mauled and killed its owner earlier this year experts have confirmed.

The dog named ‘Major’ attacked and killed its owner, Mario Perivoitos, in north London while BBC film crew that was working on a documentary about drugs looked on in horror. A veterinary toxicologist said it was the drug in the animal’s blood that fuelled the attack on its dog’s owner.

The film crew had gone with the 41-year-old owner of the dog to his home in north London shortly after 10 p.m. on a night in March to work on a documentary called “Drugs Map of Britain.”

Then, out of nowhere, Perivoitos began to have a seizure.

That’s when the dog named Major attacked, crushing Perivoitos’ larynx and bloodying his neck and face, reported the Miami Herald.

“I heard shouting – ‘Get him off! Get him off me!’” Perivoitos’ neighbor Geoff Morgan, 52, told the Guardian.
Morgan said that he lived in the apartment below Perivoitos.

“He was shouting really loudly,” Morgan added. “He was bleeding from his neck. There was a lot of blood.”

In the apartment, the film crew tried wrestling the dog off of Perivoitos, according to The Telegraph. But by the time the show’s producer was able to pry the dog off, the owner had already sustained fatal injuries, the Telegraph reports. The crew wasn’t filming during the attack.

Coroner Andrew Walker confirmed that the dog attack was the cause of death.

“It is likely that he was experiencing an epileptic shock, which caused the dog to nip his face before biting his neck,” Walker told The Telegraph. “The film crew telephoned an ambulance while attempting to get the dog off Mr Perivoitos.”

It took police nearly 10 minutes to get into the apartment where Perivoitos lived because it was heavily locked, according to The Independent.

Perivoitos was taken to a major trauma hospital when authorities arrived at the scene but died after midnight.

“The dog was eight times the drug drive limit,” said Nicholas Carmichael, a veterinary toxicology expert.

Both cocaine and morphine were found in the dog’s urine, according to the Independent.

“The dog had clearly taken it and, whether it had eaten it or taken it in by smoke, it is likely to have been a factor in the dog’s behaviour,” Carmichael added.

It is not clear what will become of the dog at last, but it will likely be killed, police told The Independent.