Thursday, August 03, 2006

I think Barney is fired

I heard this news story on the radio in the car on the way to work today and it cracked me up. I would love to see the security camera footage of this, Barney vs. Million dollars worth of teddy bears.

==========

British guard dog savages rare German teddy

3 August 2006

LONDON - A British guard dog deployed to protect an exhibition of precious teddy bears had onlookers tremble with fear when he destroyed the toy animals in a sudden and unprovoked attack.

Reports Thursday said a rare Steiff bear, which used to belong to Elvis Presley, was among the "victims" attacked by Doberman Barney at the exhibition in Wookey Hole Caves, near Wells in the south-western county of Somerset.

The teddy, named Mabel and estimated at 40,000 pounds (73,000 dollars), was made in Germany in 1909 and bought at auction in Memphis, Tennessee, by a British collector.

"About 100 bears were caught up in this frenzied attack, some were merely little chews, whereas some of them had some quite devastating injuries," exhibition manager Daniel Medley told the BBC.

"Heads pulled off, arms, legs here and there, it was a total carnage really. I've never seen such a mess, there was stuffing, fluff and bear bits everywhere," said Medley.

Security guard Greg West, who was on duty at the time, is at a loss to explain what happened to make Barney go so "berserk."

"Barney has been a model guard dog for over six years. I still can't believe what happened," he said.

"Either there was a rogue scent of some kind on Mabel which switched on Barney's deepest instincts, or it could have been jealousy - I was just stroking Mabel and saying what a nice little bear she was."

No comments: