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Chowlea BearsWookey Hole is a tourist attraction in Uk. This year they have gathered together a festival of VERY EXPENSIVE AND VERY RAREteddy bears. Here's a quote from their website
The teddies of the new Wookey Bear Collection, (which span the past 104 years and include a rare red Farnell bear from 1910 and a 1936 Merrythought Bobby Bruin) are worth in excess of £500,000, forcing our insurers to insist upon 24-hour-uniformed security, complete with highly-trained GUARD DOGS, patrolling the tranquil paths and byways of the ancient Wookey Hole estates, ensuring that the bears and the 100 local children we’ve invited to attend the launch will be 100% secure.
Unfortunately - one of the doberman dogs took a dislike to the bears ( one of which reportedly belonged to Elvis Presley) and shredded them in a fit of pique. The BBC newscast described the sight as appalling with bits of mangled Teddies everywhere. The dog - needless to say is being transferred.........................................
I only heard this report on BBC radio once whilst driving today- I haven't been able to confirm it so if it was a spoof - I've been taken in and I apologize to the Wookey Hole promoters.
What would you expect , after all 'He ain't nothin' but a hound-dog'.....sorry.....I couldn't resist
Groan.....
Pumpkin & Pickle BearsOMG...that's terrible!!!
I just googled it and came across this article..
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca … &cset=true
Chowlea BearsOgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Nice one Jenny............
Yep - story confirmed. The dog's name is 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 Canadian Press 2006
dusty attic bearsHow funny ,i only went to wookey hole yesterday to visit the bears.i did,nt see any ripped up ones though.but saying that i did,nt see any guard dogs either, perhaps he had all ready been taken away.all the bears were in large glass cases ,some real beautys too.great day out!!
Gatehouse GalleryOMG how awful.....I KNOW I shouldn't laugh......I just can't help it....I guess after breeding and living with Dobermans for over 35 years I WOULDN"T HAVE LEFT THEM ALONE WITH FLUFFIES....and I can visualise chasing them trying to get 'bits' out of their mouths.....I've done it.....shoes.....cushions.....socks..... undies.....etc,etc,etc.
I tried really hard not to laugh....honest, I did. I just couldn't help myself. I could imagine the whole thing in my mind as you were telling it. Dogs and stuffed fluffies...what were they thinking?
I do feel badly for the owner of said bear. And a Steiff no less. 
Warmest bear hugs with uncontrolled giggles, :hug:
Aleta
P.S. Thank you, Sandra, for sharing the story. 
Posts: 1,836Oh my gosh, I just saw this story on my local 11:00pm news!! They made it sound like it was several bears that got taken down by little Barney the Dog. Who thought up having dogs guard stuffed critters?? Weren't the armed guards enough...?? :doh:
I'm wondering if the dog sensed something....not that Elvis would have hid his stash in the teddy...BUT dogs that go nuts like that are usually smelling something they've been trained to seek and destroy..hmmmmm
:hug:
~Chrissi
Kiprie Bears
....
but I was holding my laugh too... :redface:
Doodlebears:crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:
I'm sorry but I can't hold my laugh. POOR TEDDIES!!!!!
I feel really sorry for the owners but as Jenny said,
after all 'He ain't nothin' but a hound-dog'
Sorry everyone, I do love teddies honestly!
Hugs Jane. 
Patsy Lake BearsWhat a fiasco you can just imagine it all happening... I just cracked up on reading Jenny's post...
after all 'He ain't nothin' but a hound-dog'
Posts: 3,540
Ummm..... where was the person that was supposed to be attached to the dog??? They didn't honestly turn a guard dog loose to guard the whole area did they???? If they did, then someone SERIOUSLY goofed!!! Who on earth would trust a dog to guard teddy bears all by their lonesome??? 
Do you think the bear said something Barney didn't approve of? :twisted:
Chowlea BearsUPDATE:-
Apparently Barney got miffed because more attention was being paid to the Teddies than to him.
A little more staff training on the obedience front me thinks........................... :crackup:
A dog is a dog is a dog................. and don't we luv em???????
Shame about the bears though must have looked like a teddy war zone :doh:
Newcastle, OntarioThere was a picture of Barney with a man in our Ottawa paper today under the title BARNEY GOES BEARSERK, which shows the mess on the floor. Sure looks like Barney enjoyed every minute LOL! It says the damage was 1.1 million, but doesn't say if that was pounds or dollars. Barney is a beautiful red doberman, and he does have a "oops, guess I goofed" look on his face. I am also trying hard not to laugh, but really - I think the museum goofed, not Barney.
hugs,
Brenda
Newcastle, OntarioI just got this off of AOL. for those who haven't seen it!
"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.
Baird'sBears :crackup: I have very mixed (mixed up :wacko:) feelings about this.
Chloe, you were probably one of the last to see all these bears alive!
Apparently Elvis' bear "Mabel", a 1909 Steiff, was lying out on a work table whilst her case was under construction.
The guard admitted that, "I had been stroking Mabel and saying what a nice little bear she was," and thought he might have made Barney jealous. They'd been working together for 6 years with no problem.
Poor Mabel got the worst of it: "There was a huge gash in the bear's chest which went through the shoulder and neck. It left the bear's head attached by a thread".
And get this--according to the general manager of Wookey Hole, "Ironically our insurance company insisted we had a dog". :crackup:
I'm sorry for the loss of these beautiful bears, but 
Posts: 1,836I'm screaming conspiracy theory over here....I just saw the photos of this dog standing in a room that looked as if a tornado had blown through it. Maybe I watch too many CSI shows, but this doesn't make sense to me. Unless they locked this dog away in the room full of teddy bears unattended as they went out for an hour dinner break...how did this one dog hit counters, dozens of baskets on the floor, shelving, all while managing to hit the "expensive" bears?? "Hundreds of bears" were destroyed?? It seems to be way too much damage and mess for one dog in a matter of "minutes".
Not too sound like a nut, but I think poor Barney the Dog is being set up to take the fall for an inside job. :crackup:
:hug:
~"CSI" Chrissi :crackup:
dusty attic bearsthe more i read about this the more i think it is a publicity stunt,when i saw the bears on tuesday they were all in large glass cases ,the photo above was defiantly taken in the shop next door and not in the museum.there was no guards and no dogs when i was there,why would they only have guards at night???? anyone could do a smash and grab in the day time tooo?????
about a year ago there was a large van pulling around a giant wookey hole dinosaur on a trailer,they must have driven around the whole of somerset with it because i saw it twice in one day.anyway the next thing i hear on the local news that was the dinosaur had been stollen,big publicity , who had seen it?? everyone was talking about it.???it then turned up a week later at glastonbury tor.this thing was around 30 feet tall not something that you could hide in a garage.
anyway back to the bears,i`m smelling a big rat!!!!!the more i think about it ,the more i think its all for publicity. and it sure has worked really well!!!!!
Teddy Bear and FriendsI think the whole teddy world is having the same reaction: we're appalled that a dog has apparently destroyed a 1909 Steiff -- let alone one with an Elvis connection -- and we're laughing ourselves silly at the big deal that's been made of this. Talk about a slow news week, right?
Though I think Chrissi and Chloe might be right in seeing a conspiracy of some sort. It does seem odd that the dog could have gotten away from its handler and had enough time to destroy so many bears, including all the valuable ones. What was the guard doing, playing tea party?
Mindy
