NEW DELHI: “Man bites dog” - a proverbial lesson in journalism primers to define what “news” is - actually happened in India’s southern state of Kerala where a man bit a rabid dog and was admitted to a hospital, a news agency reported yesterday.
 Pappan, a 65-year-old resident of the Quilon district 60km north of state capital Thiruvananthapuram, bit the dog after it attacked his duck on Wednesday, the Press Trust of India reported.
 Pappan bit the canine so hard that it bled profusely. The rabid dog was later beaten to death by villagers.
 Villagers said the dog had strayed into Pappan’s house and took away his duck. The man, in a fit of anger, sprang on the dog and the two slugged it out in a ditch, drawing a crowd of onlookers.
 Witnesses told the agency that as the dog held one of Pappan’s palms firmly between its jaws, the man bit the dog’s throat with all his might to wrest his hand free.
Soon after, both the animal and the man were exhausted and the villagers helped the man and beat the dog to death.
 Pappan was taken to a local hospital which referred him to a bigger hospital in Thiruvananthapuram for treatment of rabies.–DPA