Guard dog destroys Elvis' $75K teddy bear & others

LONDON - 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.

Oh wow. Where oh where do I start? Let's see: The man who owned the $75,000 Elvis teddy bear isn't happy. REALLY?!?! Please tell me you weren't surprised by that one. But who the hell pays $75,000 for a teddy bear anyway? and if you do, wouldn't you have it preserved in casing to prevent air (and evidently dogs...) from getting it? All fabric deteriorates over time when left vulnerable to air and bugs.

I'd also like to know why a collection worth nearly a million dollars wasn't behind glass? If you go to the link you see all of these teddy bears just sitting out. Okay, so teddy bears are cute and cuddly, but we're talking nearly a million damn dollars. It doesn't take much of a brainiac to figure out that they shouldn't be sitting out in the open.

As for the dog, HE'S A DOG! You leave out stuffed fuzzy things and he's gonna go "berzerk"! He was like a kid in a candy store, except he was a dog in a toy store. Have any of you ever known a dog that DIDN'T like to chew something that was stuffed? I'm sure he was just looking for the one that squeaked. Why should it surprise anyone that the dog did what dogs do?

Sounds like a bunch of imbeciles were in charge. But hey, that's just me.