An undated handout photo issued by Wookey Hole Caves (AP Photo/Wookey Hole Caves, Ho) Wednesday Aug 2, 2006, of the security guard Greg West and his dobermann Barney who went on the rampage. A 40,000 pound (US $75,000 euros 58,000) teddy bear formerly owned by Elvis Presley was one of the bears destroyed when the guard dog which was supposed to protect it went on the rampage Tuesday. The rare Steiff bear, named Mabel, was due to form the centrepiece of an exhibition at Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England. The bear was bought at auction in Memphis, Tennessee, by Somerset aristocrat Sir Benjamin Slade and had been loaned to the collection, a Wookey Hole spokesman said.
AP reports:
A guard dog has ripped apart a collection of rare teddy bears, including one once owned by Elvis Presley, during a rampage at a children's museum.
"He just went berserk," said Daniel Medley, general manager of the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Barney.
Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor. The bear, named Mabel, was made in 1909 by the German manufacturer Steiff.
The collection, valued at more than $900,000, included a red bear made by Farnell in 1910 and a Bobby Bruin made by Merrythought in 1936.
The bear with Elvis connections was owned by English aristocrat Benjamin Slade, who bought it at an Elvis memorabilia auction in Memphis, Tenn., and had loaned it to the museum.
"I've spoken to the bear's owner and he is not very pleased at all," Medley said.
A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground.
The tension caused by the Bush-Cheney-GOP hate and bully-culture has worked its way down to the dogs.
Filed under: dog, Elvis, teddy bear museum
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