The image of a newborn dog with green fur is running the world, creating doubts about the veracity of the photograph.
Undoubted doubt: the photo is really real and the hair of unusual color too. Italian sheep farmer Cristian Mallocci was shocked when, earlier this month, his dog, Spelacchia, gave birth to a litter of five children – four of whom were white as their mother, one covered in green fur.
While the rest of the litter, born on October 9, on the Italian island of Sardinia, is up for adoption, the little Pistacho – the color explains the name of the dried fruit – will stay with the shepherd. “We will stay with him. He arrived in a dark moment, but it will bring luck”, disse to CNN.
The explanation will be in the contact between light-colored dogs and the biliverdin, a green pigment found in bile, the same that causes bruises to turn green. The color eventually fades over time. According to Mallocci, the dog veterinarian told him that “during the gestation period, biliverdin mixes with an amniotic fluid from the placenta, staining the weakest child.”
Although rare, this is not a unique phenomenon. Last January, in the North American state of North Carolina, a white German shepherd also had a green son – he would come to be called Hulk, in an allusion to the superhero with the same color. And years ago, the same had happened in 2017, with a Golden Retriever.
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