A viral TikTok video shows the moment a service dog protects his owner from returning to a site where he had suffered a violent assault.
With more than 17 million views, the video of Nathan Warner, 24, and his dog, Benjamin, captures them walking to the location in London, Ontario, where Warner had been previously attacked.
In the video, Benjamin slows down and stops continuing down a path where Warner says they were “traumatized” by the attacker. He rushes to his owner’s side and keeps him from walking further.
Watching as his owner struggled with flashbacks and started to cry, Benjamin stayed close by throughout.
Warner suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and hypermobile-Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Benjamin is a medical, mobility and psychiatric service dog and rarely leaves his owner’s side.
benzo.nate/TikTok
“In the location of the video, I was violently beaten by a man and chased as I attempted to escape him,” Warner told Newsweek. “The man approached Benjamin and I while we were doing some training and asked if I had any change.
“When I told him I didn’t have any, he called me a f*****. I turned to walk away and he grabbed my shoulder hard enough to dislocate it—my joints dislocate very easily due to my disease—and spun me around to face him.”
Dropping his dog’s leash, Warner told Benjamin to run as the man punched him, shattering a molar, bruising his cheekbone and giving him a concussion.
“The punch spun me around and I took off, Benjamin running right beside me, and the man began to chase us. I don’t know how long he stayed on our tail, but we ran for blocks, taking any small side road and alley we could to lose him,” Warner said. “When I was finally sure he was gone and off our tail, I went to find my partner, who was already out looking for me because I was on an active Discord call the whole time and they heard everything.”
In response to the video on TikTok, viewers rushed to praise Benjamin’s loyalty and extend their good wishes to Warner after the attack.
“He’s telling you not to push yourself I think,” said one. “You did amazing just to go back there at all.”
Another TikToker wrote: “We truly don’t deserve dogs. What a good boy.”
“I was genuinely so proud of Benjamin and how he handled the whole situation,” Warner said. “He used years of knowledge built up around my previous trauma symptoms and actively put them to work in my moment of need.”
As the video continues to gain viral attention from people around the world, Warner is thankful for all of the warm wishes and kind thoughts.
“I’ve cried over so many [of the comments] because they were just so heartfelt and warm towards us,” he said. “People making sure we are safe, warm and sending us good wishes is a feeling like no other.”
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to [email protected] with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
