Maybe a "Dog's Life" Ain't So Great After All
My father sent me the following link with the heading: "What the *#@$?!?!?!?!?"
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Aug/20050803News037.asp
The text of the article can also be found in the comments for this post.
Very sad - indeed. That strange pet psychic woman from Animal Planet should go take a look. I can't imagine losing a pet that way. Why would anyone tempt fate by walking their dog in that area?
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Aug/20050803News037.asp
The text of the article can also be found in the comments for this post.
Very sad - indeed. That strange pet psychic woman from Animal Planet should go take a look. I can't imagine losing a pet that way. Why would anyone tempt fate by walking their dog in that area?
posted by Patti at 1:16 PM
1 Comments:
Here is the text of the article - in case the link goes bad one day...
Dogs leap to deaths off bridge
Scots unsure what makes pets jump.
The Dallas Morning News
Published Wednesday, August 3, 2005
MILTON, Scotland - Donna Cooper still has no idea why her normally obedient border collie, Ben, leapt to his death this spring off a tall rural bridge in Milton without any warning or apparent rationale. "Ben’s feet never touched the wall," she said, referring to the waist-high, 18-inch-thick barrier that has been hurdled - inexplicably and with a near certainty of death - by scores of dogs during the past three decades. "He just went straight over."
Maybe it’s the whistle of the wind from distant Loch Lomond or the fabled "white lady" who is said to haunt an adjacent mansion or the rustle of tree branches next to a nearby waterfall.
Nobody knows for sure, but something strange is causing dogs to jump off the Overtoun Estate bridge, west of Glasgow, at an alarming rate. Most are killed by the 60-foot fall or are so severely injured that veterinarians must put them to sleep. Others have survived, only to come back and try again.
The mystery has prompted investigations by an animal behaviorist and the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Even a group of paranormal researchers visited recently. None has found a plausible explanation.
"Dogs don’t commit suicide. People do," said Joyce Stuart, a professional animal behaviorist with 16 years of experience. "Dogs are survivors, born survivors. Everything dogs do is for a reason. ... They’re not stupid like we are."
So why, she asked, have dogs been leaping off the bridge at rates reportedly as high as one per month during the past 20 or 30 years?
The bridge itself provides precious few clues. Built in the 1890s, the one-lane span arches over a leafy ravine and waterfall. Several semicircular alcoves jut outward from the walls at 20-foot intervals.
An athletic dog might be tempted to jump onto the wall to view surrounding woodlands. Cooper said she thinks maybe Ben was searching for her toddler daughter, who was hiding in one of the alcoves at the time.
The bridge lies within the grounds of the 85-acre Overtoun Estate. The name has been traced back to the 14th century in reference to a large tract of pastureland.
Built in the 1860s by industrialist James White, the mansion fell into disrepair during the Depression. For 22 years, it was a maternity hospital. Then it was occupied by a succession of Christian missionary groups.
Bob Hill, a Christian missionary from Fort Worth, Texas, is renovating the mansion to provide a retreat for inner-city youths. He said dog owners have knocked on his door to ask for help after their dogs jumped off the bridge. Nevertheless, he contends that such incidents are being exaggerated by the news media.
As proprietor of the estate, Hill said he has become acutely aware of the international attention surrounding his bridge. "I got a call from a friend of mine in Alabama awhile back," Hill recalled. "He said: ‘Bob, you’re not going to believe this. You’ve got dogs jumping off your bridge committing suicide.’ "
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