What took their dog?

Probably NOTHING, but interesting none the less.

“Whatever got a hold of him took him away,” Carley said of the 66-pound English Staffordshire bull terrier he calls King. “There was no struggle.”

I am always skeptical of landlocked areas boasting of a 'sea monster' in their midst, but I do believe something grabbed there pooch.

Couple says their dog disappeared in Lake Somerset

I think the logical answer would be some type of water creature indigenous to the area, but I have to wonder what type of fish could take down a supposedly healthy 66 pound dog.

I did a google search of the lake in question, but was unable to locate it.
This leads me to believe it may be too small to mention, which in turn decreases the possibility of it being any type of 'sea monster'.

As the article states, the authorities believe the dog just 'drowned' although the owners cannot will not accept this.


They mention there are some big fish in the lake, anyone have any insight on what size of fish could take down a dog this size?





[edit on 11-6-2008 by Grailkeeper]

What i find odd is the weight of the dog, i have a staff/pitt and they dont grow that big!?

Staffordshire Bull Terrier physique

Weight: Males 28-38 pounds Females 24-34 pounds
Height: 14-16 inches
Coat: Smooth, short and close to the skin, many colors
Nose: black
Eyes: Dark preferred
Ears: Uncropped; rose
Tail: Short, to the hock and tapering. Should resemble old pump-handle.
Body: Muscular, agile, somewhat wide chest, fit not fat
Head: Round, broad head with distinct cheek muscles
Litter size: 4-6
Life span: 10-15 years

en.wikipedia.org...

Maybe its cross with a much larger breed?

They article in itself is interesting, as even a 38 pound dog could put up a good fight if attacked, on the otherside if it was a sea creature, maybe the dog had no chance lol.


**Edit to add, just looked at the picture of the dog, no ways its 66 pound, must be a typo error.

[edit on 11-6-2008 by Denied]

My guess would be a large snapping turtle. A snapper could grab a dog, latch on, and pull it under.

reply to post by lw2525



I was thinking along the lines of a Turtle too, but that would have to be a fair size turtle

Also.... no blood was visible.

More on the Turtle angle....

Alligator Snapping Turtle - Largest in N.A.

WIKI Says...

the largest one actually on record is 236 lb, and housed at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Illinois. They generally do not grow quite that large. Average adult size is around 26 inches shell length with a weight of 175 lb

Also states they are not normally aggressive

The Common Snapping Turtleon the other hand....

Snapping turtles are omnivores, consuming both plant and animal matter, and are important aquatic scavengers; but they are also active hunters that prey on anything they can swallow, including many invertebrates, fish, frogs, reptiles (including snakes and smaller turtles), unwary birds and small mammals.

But the sizing is much different, and hardly seems like a likely culprit.

The carapace (upper shell) length in adulthood may be nearly 50 cm (20 inches) (though 20-36 cm, or 8-14 inches, is more common), with C. serpentina and its subspecies commonly weighing 4.5-16 kg (10-35 lb

Do Chupacabras Swim?

A dog on the Lake here in N Indiana where me and my brothers have a cottage got taken by a muskie a couple of years ago. Of course, it was a little 7lb terrier so that's much smaller than the dog in this case. I don't know if there are alligator snapping turtles that far N in Pennsylvania but there could be alligator gars up there and they can get quite huge from what I've heard. I'm not sure if they get big enough to eat a bulldog but there are some tales about them getting pretty monstrous in some of the remote mountain lakes in the Appalachian[sic?] mountains.

Wikipedia Alligator Gar Entry

[edit on 11-6-2008 by Necrosis]

This story reminds me of the famous catfish eating dog of Germany.

A giant catfish that ate a dog and terrorised a German lake for years has washed up dead, but the legend of "Kuno the Killer" lives on.

A gardener discovered the carcass of a 1.5-metre long catfish weighing 35 kilograms this week, a spokesman for the western city of Moenchengladbach said yesterday.

Kuno became a local celebrity in 2001 when he sprang from the waters of the Volksgarten park lake to swallow a Dachshund puppy whole. He evaded repeated attempts to capture him.

"He was our Loch Ness monster," said Uwe Heil, member of "Kuno's Friends", a local rock band named after the fish.

story

I would highly doubt that any species of snapping turtle did this. They are ambush predators, that sit on the bottom of lakes.

I seen bass swallow rodents from the surface, and have heard of stories of pike taking down baby ducks before. But I can't see a fish swallowing a dog.

I would usually suspect the obvious, that the dog drowned. Its always easier to say that something paranormal or mysteries happened. The simplest solution is most often the right one.

So... The dog looks like a pit bull more than a English Staffordshire bull terrier! People do this all the time because the term "pit bull" is kind of generic and has bad conotations. Many shelters will actually call pit bulls- american bull terriers or Staffordshire bull terrier instead of the dreaded pit bull! Do not tell the owner that however they get all offended! The dog in the pic looks like a small to medium sized pit bull maybe 40-50 pounds tops!

No clue what did him in however! If I had to guess I would say he got caught on something and drowned. If something ate him or he had some medical problem (which is not likely if you are to believe he is a young active dog with no prior problems) then most likely he would have cried out! There is no way even a 35 pound dog is going to get dragged under by any known fresh water animal and not put up some kind of fight! The lake that this happened in is only 16 feet deep max so I dought a really large animal could live in it and no one has see ever seen it. No fresh water fish could do this, even the large cat fish which was reported only ate a dog weighing under 10 pounds and this dog in the pic has to be at least 35#. It is in PA so that rules out a large aligator or croc, because even with global warming it still is not going to get that warm in PA for a large crocidillian to make it through the winter! I guess someone could have had a croc for a pet and recentally it either escaped or they got tired of it and put it in the lake, but that would have to have happened in the last 2-3 months! Hey people do it all the time, huge pythons, boas and green iguanas are now common place in warmer places of the US like Florida!

Originally posted by Necrosis
A dog on the Lake here in N Indiana where me and my brothers have a cottage got taken by a muskie a couple of years ago. Of course, it was a little 7lb terrier so that's much smaller than the dog in this case. I don't know if there are alligator snapping turtles that far N in Pennsylvania but there could be alligator gars up there and they can get quite huge from what I've heard. I'm not sure if they get big enough to eat a bulldog but there are some tales about them getting pretty monstrous in some of the remote mountain lakes in the Appalachian[sic?] mountains.

Wikipedia Alligator Gar Entry

[edit on 11-6-2008 by Necrosis]

I was thinking along the lines of tiger muskie or pike, snapper is a good guess to, turtles are assholes..
Maybe its like bearlake here, we have some HUGE sturgeons but as far as im concerned they can stay on their grimy bottom and usually do.

[edit on 12-6-2008 by Kikider]

If you have never actually been around a snapping turtle, they are deadly, they have amazing jaws and beak things, one of them bit the tip of my friends finger off. also they are plenty strong to bite a dogs throat, then swim off with the poor thing.

reply to post by Grailkeeper

Well I fush at this lake all the time and during this time of the attack is when the snapping turtles there are laying their eggs and believe me a snapping could have done it along with a very large muskee wich will attack anything. There are very big fish there anyways so why would you have a dog swim in the lake to begin with. I have caught over 38inch fish there so don't feed the fish with dogs.

reply to post by Grailkeeper


That was my thought as well.. I go to a local National Park occasionally to Feed Alligator Snapping Turtles, ANd they grow quite large with age.

reply to post by Denied


Pitts can easily get around 65 pounds or so. I and my family have raised 3 over the past 30 years and none of them have been the smaller type (the mid 30 lbs range) all of my pitts have been between the 40 - 60 lb range. My last dog, 16 years old (had to put her down 3 weeks ago) was 65 lbs in her prime. Its hard to tell how big my current puppy will get but her feet are enormous for an 11 week old pup. The larger ones are typically bred for pulling contests.

I am also not quite sure if the American Staffordshire Terrier (Pitt) is the same as the Staffordshire Bull terrier. Just my .02 cents on my favorite breed.

The Real Pittbull

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The Physics of Love?

Originally posted by kupoliveson
If I had to guess I would say he got caught on something and drowned. If something ate him or he had some medical problem (which is not likely if you are to believe he is a young active dog with no prior problems) then most likely he would have cried out!

A heart problem (as the article mentions) is quite possible as cardiomyopathy DOES affect certain breeds, and it does take down vigorous, healthy dogs at 3 or 4 years old. Their hearts suddenly stop pumping on one side and the dog drops almost instantly, they go into a state of shock, followed by a rapid death.

I used to show Dobermans and that happened to a few very active, seemingly perfectly healthy young dogs. I knew of a few dogs that died suddenly that way (some as young as 4, probably happens much younger but we just don't hear about it). They would be playing in the yard or chasing a ball and BAM they would drop on the spot in some cases. People sometimes drop dead that way too, even young people if they have a heart problem.

[edit on 25-9-2008 by Sonya610]

But, if the dog were suddenly die due to a heart condition or something - wouldn't the body float? At least at first?

The article sounds like the dog was swimming back and then *poof* - the dog goes under never to be seen again.

If it was an animal that got him then maybe a very large snapping turtle.

Or - Consider the following...

Carley said King was coming in with a stick near a boat launch on the 253-acre lake. Then, around 3:30 p.m., he went under.

Near a boat launch.

The article doesn't mention if there was a boat nearby or not - but consider the following possiblity.

Some type of anchor line, tie line or something from a boat is submerged in the water.

Dog gets line wrapped around foot while swimming back with stick.

Boat the line is attached to heads across the lake - dog goes *poof* as boat pulls him under.

Dog eventually breaks surface out in the lake when slack goes out of line, but owners are looking near shore where dog went under.

Owner of boat later says, "Oh, I had this line out. Let me pull it in. Uh-oh..a drowned dog. Ummm..let me just get rid of this to avoid trouble."

Originally posted by shaolin-do
reply to post by Denied

 

Pitts can easily get around 65 pounds or so. I and my family have raised 3 over the past 30 years and none of them have been the smaller type (the mid 30 lbs range) all of my pitts have been between the 40 - 60 lb range. My last dog, 16 years old (had to put her down 3 weeks ago) was 65 lbs in her prime. Its hard to tell how big my current puppy will get but her feet are enormous for an 11 week old pup. The larger ones are typically bred for pulling contests.

I am also not quite sure if the American Staffordshire Terrier (Pitt) is the same as the Staffordshire Bull terrier. Just my .02 cents on my favorite breed.

The Real Pittbull

Thanks for the information on Pitts, however i was referring to the article posted where it says its an English Staffordshire bull terrier, which when i looked, it said they dont grow that big.

I did put staff/pitt because thats what i have, a staff cross with a pitt, i should of typed my first post better.

But thanks, its still amazing to hear about your pittbull's and how huge they sound

Lovely animals if looked after properly, they just got a bad image, as you probably know.