Can a dog survive with a severed head? Soviet Union scientist Sergei Sergeevich Brukhonenko tried to answer this question by a creepy experiment in 1928. He beheaded a dog and attached the head to an artificial blood circulating machine, intended to restore the brain’s function.
The dog head, miraculously, was brought back to life for a few hours and even swallowed a few slices of cheese before dropping dead again.
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The experiment was recorded by a documentary filmed by Soviet Film Agency, which was first released to the public in 1941. In the video, Brukhonenko attached a dog head, which had been dismembered from the body for ten minutes, to a machine named “autojector”. This machine appeared to circulate blood around the head and restore basic functions.
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It consisted of two mechanically operated diaphragm pumps with a system of valves that oxygenates blood by removing carbon dioxide and increasing oxygen content. Attached to autojector, the dog head seemed to have come back to life, and react to sound and light. It even swallowed a few slices of cheese just like a living dog. However, the resurrection period was just as short as a few hours, as the dog head stopped functioning again.
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The experiment was later perfected and resulted in a new invention of a heart and lung reviving machine. It was reported that 2 out of 13 experimental animals were resuscitated and survived using the heart-lung machine.
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Science never stops to seek breakthroughs. Almost a century later, Italian neurosurgeon Dr Sergio Canavero worked in collaboration with Chinese scientists to conduct another controversial surgery – head transplant. They successfully transplanted the head of a smaller mouse to a bigger mouse, and kept this twin-headed mouse alive for 36 hours.
ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — It is a sight Ted Koerner feared he might never see again after his house burned down: His treasured golden retriever, Daisy Mae, playing in his backyard, under the shade of his 175-year-old Heritage Oak.
A year ago, as the wind-swept Eaton Fire moved in, Koerner fled with then 12-year-old Daisy Mae, grabbing a couple pairs of sweats, long-sleeved shirts, a pillow and two pictures of the dog. He drove away as the flames were at the end of his street in Altadena.
Koerner and Daisy Mae spent the first weeks in a hotel with hundreds of others after the Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed thousands of homes and killed 31 people. They went on walks, the hardened ash crunching beneath his feet and her paws.
"Those first few weeks were beyond devastating," he said.
His biggest fear was losing Daisy Mae before he could get through a daunting and costly rebuilding process. Koerner has lived alone with the 75-pound, snow white dog for 12 years. He takes her with him to restaurants — even five-star steakhouses — without a leash.
For nearly a year, Koerner raced against time to rebuild his home. He liquidated most of his retirement holdings so he could afford to hire contractors quickly while he waited for his mortgage servicing company to release his insurance payout.
He gave the builder enough money “to build at record speed, because I need to get home with my dog before she passes,” he recalled telling his mortgage servicing company early on. “Because if she passes, I don’t want to come here. And this is a very, very, very special dog.”
The first time Koerner brought Daisy Mae after construction started, the house was framed, with a roof and openings for windows and doors.
“She walked right over to where the front door was supposed to be, went right in the house, walked around the house, walked over to what was the master bedroom sliding door, which was a great big opening, just like it would have been, and sat down and got a big smile on her face and went, ‘OK, the house is still here,’ ” he said.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, his home was among the first to be rebuilt of the thousands destroyed in the Los Angeles area wildfires a year ago. Construction took just over four months.
“I went into the house and cried a lot,” Koerner said. “It still has that effect. I’m actually home with my dog. ”
Ted Koerner, whose home was reduced to ash in the 2025 wildfires, sits on the porch of his newly rebuilt home, alongside his dog Daisy Mae, in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Daisy Mae, a dog belonging to Ted Koerner, walks on Koerner's property in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Ted Koerner, whose home was reduced to ash in the 2025 wildfires, sits on the porch of his newly rebuilt home, alongside his dog Daisy Mae, in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Ted Koerner, whose home was reduced to ash in the 2025 wildfires, stands on the porch of his newly rebuilt home, alongside his dog Daisy Mae, in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
