Hound dog mauls Elvis's teddy bear
 

Thu Aug 3, 8:04 AM ET

Barney the guard dog went berserk at a teddy bear exhibition in England and ripped the stuffing out of Elvis Presley's beloved bear Mabel, exhibitors said on Thursday.

Wookey Hole Caves, a popular holiday destination in Somerset, southern England, was drawing children with its display of 1,000 precious teddy bears, including Mabel, beloved bear of the King of Rock and Roll.

But, said General Manager Daniel Medley, it all went horribly wrong.

The collection was so valuable that the insurance company insisted the exhibitors guard it with dogs. Barney, a sleek and handsome Dobermann, was dutifully dispatched.

"The security guard was doing his normal patrols at the site. He let the dog in, and the dog went on a rampage," Medley told Reuters.

"He started with Mabel, took a very large chunk out of Mabel almost severing her head, and then went mad. It took about 20 minutes to bring him out."

Dozens of other bears were shredded too.

Mabel is the property of Sir Benjamin Slade, a local aristocrat, who says he paid 40,000 pounds ($75,000) at auction for the bear.

Sir Benjamin is "hopping mad," confessed Medley.

As for Barney, "he's going to be retired to a farm where he can chase chickens," Medley said. "We've told the security company we don't want anything nasty to happen to Barney, but we don't want him back."

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This made me laugh especially this part;

"the insurance company insisted the exhibitors guard it with dogs. Barney, a sleek and handsome Dobermann, was dutifully dispatched."

First of all, I'd hate to be the guy that made that decision. Let's get guard dogs to watch over 1,000 "dog toys". Barney must have thought he'd died and gone to chew toy heaven.
Then...who chose a guard dog that it took 20 minutes to get under control? I've worked around K-9 handlers in the past. They have remarkable control over these animals. One word, or one movement, will take these animals from docile, to "Cujo", back to docile again...in under 2 seconds. It appears that Barney wasn't the best choice of a bad choice to begin with.

"You want how much, to provide a trained guard dog?!?"
"Forget it! My neighbor's cousin's barber's best-friend's drinking buddy has a Doberman that we can use for the cost of a bag of kibble."

Whenever I hear the name barney- I don't think of purple dinosaurs, I think of Andy's bumbling sidekick... ithink the dog is well named...

poor doggie -- must have been in a toy frenzy... he wasn't responsible for his actions.. temporary insanity and all... have pity on the poor dog...

Don Knotts Killed my teddy bear.

a Dobermannhttp://www.chillydogs.ca/Images/Doberman.jpg is not a Hound Dog, a http://www.pets.ca/breedprofiles/a/bassethound/b2.jpg is a hound dog, as in it looks like it is "crying all the time" and does so (they whine a lot) as in elvis' song...
damn journalists, I guess "dog mauls some expensive bears" just wan't funny enough.