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The image of a newborn dog with green fur travels the world, creating doubts about the veracity of the photograph.
Without a doubt: the photo is really real and the hair of an unusual color too. Italian sheep breeder Cristian Mallocci was shocked when earlier this month his dog, Spelacchia, gave birth to a litter of five children, four of whom were white like 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 Pistachio – the color explains the name of the dried fruit – will stay with the shepherd. “We are going to stay with him. He came at a dark time, but it will bring luck,” he told CNN.
The explanation will be in the contact between light-colored dogs and the Biliverdin, a green pigment found in bile, the same pigment that causes bruises to turn green. The color eventually fades over time. According to Mallocci, the canine vet told him that “during the gestation period, biliverdin mixes with amniotic fluid from the placenta, staining the weaker 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, who would be called the Hulk, alluding to the superhero of the same color. And years ago, the same thing had happened in 2017, with a Golden Retriever.
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