Sunday, March 27, 2011

Dog Suicide Bridge

Overtoun Bridge, near Dumbarton in west Scotland, has become famous for the number of unexplained instances in which dogs have apparently committed suicide by leaping off of it. It has been the scene of at least fifty, unexplained, dog deaths.

The incidents were first recorded around the 1950's or 1960's when it was noticed that dogs - usually the long-nosed variety like Collies - would suddenly and unexpectedly leap off the bridge and fall fifty feet to their deaths.  In some cases, however, the dogs would survive, recuperate, and then leap off the bridge again

A rational explanation for the "dog suicides" could be the mink population that resides under the bridge in the brush.  Veterinarians and animal experts have pointed out that a dog, overly excited at the smell of the minks and unable to see over the sides of the bridge, might leap over the side on impulse not realizing that they are on a bridge at all. 

Or they were extremely depressed; the misplacement of their buried bones could have had more serious ramifications than anyone thought.

29 comments:

-inastateofblue said...

Hmm interesting aha, never heard of it before. Great blog, followed! Cheers (;

techdelver said...

great photo, happy blogging

Astronomy Pirate said...

Dang, they should have put their dogs on Xanax.

Jay said...

fifty? that's unbelievable!

Alphabeta said...

I had guessed that there must be some scent influencing the jumps.
The explanation kind of drops the ass out of the story!

CandleintheDark said...

I have heard about this! That's very creepy.

Following btw. Great blog!

Erika said...

I've heard of this before. It's an incredibly strange phenomena indeed.

Matt Neumann said...

Poor puppies! Someone should stop throwing their left over lunches and meat scraps off the bridge!

Something Concupiscible said...

That's very strange. I've never heard of this before. I hope the dogs were not just depressed.

Anette said...

Wow, that's creepy.. Although the mink population kinda explains it.

Zombie said...

Poor doggies... :(

ed said...

scary, doesnt look like its intentional suicide

Devon Davidson said...

I've heard about this bridge before, would be nice to get a confirmed reason as to why they're doing that. :P

Fix PC Games Admin said...

that road looks like a face anyway that's pretty bad

Nina said...

poor dogs. i think the mink population is probably the reason that makes most sense.

Rachel Neilson said...

Nooo =( i love dogs.

Anonymous said...

...what? nice blog though

Moobeat said...

just the name of this is creepy enough

The Wired said...

Lol funny, but they should rope off the area and make sure no more dogs meet there untimely demise!

Jessica Thompson said...

Oh man those goddamn minks! Come check me out, alphabetalife.blogspot.com

Lemmiwinks said...

great post. following you

Kaneda said...

Sad stuff :( But I think dogs only suicide accidentally.

lol said...

Man, thats the sadest thing I've seen all day. I hate hearing about animals dying. :(

Anonymous said...

That's very odd

madotsuki said...

Yeah, I've heard about that bridge before.

Cree said...

poor dogs :( still looks like a cool place to chill though, until you hear demon ghost barking of course

Unknown said...

I've heard about it, its creepy for me.

neo.enviro said...

That's sad, poor pooches :(

Brock said...

Wow, what a depressing bridge, it looks like such a nice place too

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