4 Peoria dogs lucky to be alive after disturbed beehive swarms dogs

PEORIA, Ariz. - It’s not just humans that can potentially die from an allergic reaction to bee stings, but animals can too, and four Peoria dachshunds are lucky to be alive after each suffered several bee stings.

Earlier this year, two dogs in Glendale died after being attacked by an aggressive swarm of bees.

The four dogs in Peoria were a lot luckier to pull through.

The incident happened when landscapers reportedly disturbed a beehive, which then targeted the dogs.

The dogs' owner, McKenna Cerqua, says one of her dogs, Delaney, went into anaphylactic shock instantly, but she's OK now.

The three other dachshunds are also recovering after they were each stung about a dozen times by the swarm of bees while they were in their dog run at home. 

"Delaney, she was totally gone. She wasn’t even breathing. She was limp," Cerqua said, adding, "Then we have our older girl, Teagan, who was also barely alive."

After rushing the dogs to the vet, she checked her home surveillance cameras, which showed a landscaper putting on a bee suit, and attempting to remove a hive located on the other side of their backyard fence.

"He comes right next to the dog run, messes with the bees and just riles them up," Cerqua said.

Delaney and Teagan almost didn’t make it. They were each stung nearly 20 times and suffered bad reactions.

Luckily, they pulled through and are now home and doing better.

Cerqua hopes her story reminds people to leave hives alone, and let the exterminators, or beekeepers, handle the removal.

"We were just thinking, what if our eight-year-old son was out back? This could’ve been life or death for a human," Cerqua said.

FOX 10 contacted the landscaping company for comment on this story, but calls were not returned.

Cerqua says an extermination company came by days after the incident and removed the remainder of the hive and bees.

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