Читать книгу Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside - Brad Steiger - Страница 23

Still, though, there must really be something in North Carolina that delights in mauling large dogs. Paul Jefferson (of starnewsonline.com) reported on December 12, 2007, that a monster that local residents had called the Beast of Bolivia had returned to wreak havoc on their pets.

Shelby Sellers returned from work at the Brunswick County Government Center to find Rosie, his three-year-old pit bull, mauled, with claw marks and wounds on its hindquarters and paws. The veterinarian assured Sellers that Rosie would survive, but she was more fortunate than his neighbors, who reported that their two puppies had been killed.

It appeared that the Beast of Bolivia who had terrorized the region in mid-September had returned. At that time, three dogs had been found mauled by an unknown predator in the area of Midway, Brown, and Gilbert Roads.

Area residents had been completely unsatisfied with the efforts of the county’s Animal Services department to identify the marauder. Some men came out to investigate the Beast’s track, scoop up some droppings and other specimens, but there was no announcement of the analysis of these clues.

Those who had lost their dogs to the mysterious creature agreed with local animal experts who had pronounced the mauling of the dogs to be the work of a cougar or an unusually large bobcat. Others speculated that a lion or a tiger had escaped from the Faircloth Zoo, and the managers just didn’t want to own up to their carelessness. The accusations against the zoo were silenced when authorities informed the citizenry that that particular zoo had been closed for 15 months and that all their animals had been shipped to other zoos.

In the meantime, attacks continued. While no one ever saw the Beast of Bolivia, some hunters theorized that the monster must have been a bear, judging from the size of the tracks.