Ain't nothin' but a hound dog - but it savages Elvis' teddy bear
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Your support makes all the difference.A £40,000 teddy bear formerly owned by Elvis Presley was destroyed when a hound dog - employed to protect the bear while it was being exhibited in Somerset - ripped the head off the historic soft toy.
The rare Steiff bear, named Mabel, was due to form the centrepiece of an exhibition at Wookey Hole Caves near Wells.
The bear was bought at auction in Memphis, Tennessee, by a Somerset aristocrat, Sir Benjamin Slade, and had been loaned to the collection, a spokesman at Wookey Hole said. He said the dog - a Doberman Pinscher called Barney - "went berserk" and ripped the head off the historic toy.
Sir Benjamin, 59, who has a large collection of Elvis memorabilia, is said to be taking the bear's demise very badly.
A security guard and dog handler, Greg West, 36, was on duty when Barney savaged the bear, which was made in Germany in 1909. Mr West, from Bristol, said: "Barney has been a model guard dog for over six years. I still can't believe what happened. Either there was a rogue scent of some kind on Mabel which switched on his deepest instincts, or it could have been jealousy - I was just stroking Mabel and saying what a nice little bear she was."
The dog went on to attack almost 100 other teddy bears, worth an estimated £20,000. The exhibition has been temporarily closed. Mr Medley said: "It's a disaster. The scene is just a horrific mess, with bits of teddy bear everywhere."
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