The woman in Minot, Maine, was out walking her mutt, which I will call a “mutt” instead of a “dog” for the stake of alliteration and to not overuse the word “dog.” But never mind. The animal walker saw the “thing” in the distance, and couldn’t quite believe her eyes. Thank goodness it was dead, she mumbled to herself.
But amazingly, she had her camera along, and snapped some photos of the “Minot Beast” (above and below, click on them to make them larger, if you dare).
With whom should she share these photos, she wondered. Ah, that crime beat news reporter Mark LaFlamme of the Lewiston Sun Journal, perhaps? And who should he show them to, he pondered. Ah, yes, LaFlamme decided to turn to Loren Coleman, intrepid cryptozoologist, “International Man of Mystery,” as Jess Kilby of the Phoenix called him.
Mark sent the images to me, and, well, my verdict was not too surprising to LaFlamme and even had a familiar ring to it. Another dead Maine canid, probably a domestic dog, had been found on the road, I told him.
Minot is a small rural town of a little over 2000 souls in western Androscoggin County, Maine, USA, only half as large as Turner, Maine, the site of last summer’s big “Maine Mutant” flap*. Minot is one of those slowly growing “bedroom communities” near Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, but still very much “out in the country.”
As far as looking at the photographs, to see the link to a dog, compare the dentition between the found animal to the teeth of a dog, shown here with the bone of the mandible removed to reveal the roots of the teeth. Pay attention to the form, spacing, number, and appearance between the Minot Beast’s jaw and teeth and the mandible/dentition of the verified dog skull shown here. It’s a match, no doubt about it.
Click on images for full-size version.
While the local legend of the real cryptid “Mystery Beast” lives on out in the forests of central Maine, near Turner, Minot, Greene, and other towns, this “Minot Beast” find is interesting, zoologically, but this dead find, again, is not “it.”
The above banner is by Artist Paul Szauter.
*For more on the beginnings of the Maine Mutant story, see August 16, 2006 – Mystery Animal Photos and August 17, 2006 – Mystery Beast Update.
Please click on the above photograph by Michelle O’Donnell for a full-size version. Used by permission.
I think people should realize that readers here are the exception, not the rule. Most people walk around in their lives, unaware of the natural world. Don’t forget that.
Your awareness of how much you can “learn” from merely looking at the evidence is often lost on the general public.
This blog is posted for informative and educational purposes.
I know that a lot of hunters feel that they are more or less expected to shoot feral dogs. But too many of them just blast away at anything that moves and ask questions or look for collars later.
Besides, that’s what Animal Control is for. With all the options available for the management of strays nowadays, shooting them should be a last resort.
It’s not clear how this dog met its end. It does not say whether it was shot. But what is clear is that it is some sort of brachycephalic dog with ears cropped short. That generally spells Pit Bull Dog. It clearly is not a Dobie. Even though the soft tissue and muscles may recede during decomposition, the jawbones themselves do not, and these jawbones are not proportioned like a Dobe’s. I don’t think the head was black in life; it looks like the fur has fallen out due to advanced decomposition and the black color we see is the decomposing skin itself rather than black fur. You can still see some of the reddish fur in parts of the black skin areas.
The most logical explanation is that the dog was a Pit Bull which either died in a fight and was dumped, was so badly injured in a fight that it was killed and dumped, or wouldn’t fight so it was killed and dumped. Or maybe it was shot by a hunter.
However it died, it’s a sad end for a dog. Pit Bull Dogs can be really good dogs if they are socialized properly and they can be as loving and affectionate as any other breed.
“Getting into debate over breed of dog – pointless and irrelevant, and off topic of original blog posting.”
Hmmm. I read the original blog posting again…seems to me like determining that it is a DOG, and pointing out facts supporting that premise IS the topic of the original blog posting.
“One Eyed Cat Says:
There appear to be some markings on the foreleg in same photo.”
Actually to me those marks look like bite marks from another dog. Occasionally at the clinic we have had to hold dogs that were confiscated from pit fights. The bite marks they exhibit look very much like the marks on this dog’s leg.
brindel pitbull-hybrid wth cropped ears no less.