Speaker 1: Hey guys, Steve here, you are listening to one of
Speaker 1: our original twenty six episodes. If you listen to any
Speaker 1: of our new episodes, you're gonna notice that we're sounding
Speaker 1: a little different in these ones. Yeah, there's a reason
Speaker 1: for that. There is they've been remastered. They have been
Speaker 1: remastered because they had a really annoying hum. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean a huge thanks to listener James for doing almost
Speaker 1: all of the legwork on this thing. They'll also notice
Speaker 1: if you had listened to what we're calling the last
Speaker 1: twenty six episodes before and you're re listening now, the
Speaker 1: music and sound effects are gone. Yes, we've we've gone
Speaker 1: back to straight audio, so be warned. We sound a
Speaker 1: little different today than we do in what you're about
Speaker 1: to listen to. Yeah, bye bye, Thinking Sideways. I don't
Speaker 1: think you never know stories of things we simply don't
Speaker 1: know the answer too. Well. Hello, and welcome to Thinking
Speaker 1: Sideways the podcast. I'm Steve, and we have another unusual
Speaker 1: story for you this week. We do, so let's just
Speaker 1: go this. This is. This is does not fall in
Speaker 1: line with any of the stories that we've talked about before.
Speaker 1: I kind of diverged a little bit here just bear
Speaker 1: with me through this, dude. They have a format for
Speaker 1: a reason, you know. Processor Yeah, our story starts in
Speaker 1: West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the Overton House estate. It's a
Speaker 1: Victorian house, was built in eighteen sixty two. It's a
Speaker 1: large stone mansion sits on a palatial two thousand acre estate.
Speaker 1: But the house is not actually the subject of our story.
Speaker 1: Oh I know. Near the house is the Overton Bridge,
Speaker 1: which was built in and spans the Overton Burn burns
Speaker 1: Scottish for stream. Everything was going along perfectly fine, no
Speaker 1: strange activity whatsoever until the nineteen fifties. Since the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: over fifty dogs have apparently committed suicide by jumping from
Speaker 1: the bridge and falling nearly fifty feet to their deaths
Speaker 1: on the rocks flow. That's one a year that have
Speaker 1: jumped and died. Another six hundred dogs have been reported
Speaker 1: as jumping off of this bridge or trying to jump,
Speaker 1: and either they made it and they survived the fall.
Speaker 1: Some hit the bushes that are below. Some aren't that lucky,
Speaker 1: or their owners were able to stop them from actually jump.
Speaker 1: Why do people keep bringing their dogs to this bridge
Speaker 1: that I want to know, that's a very good question.
Speaker 1: It's not until recently the people have figured out that
Speaker 1: it's an unleash area. It actually would be hilarious if
Speaker 1: the dogs would just like leap over and take their
Speaker 1: owners with them. Yeah, well that's that's not the way
Speaker 1: it went. Uh. Those dogs that survived the fall, when
Speaker 1: they were brought back to the bridge, they happily tried
Speaker 1: to jump again. All of the dogs that have jumped
Speaker 1: off of this bridge, there's some some things that are
Speaker 1: consistencies in every situation. Every one of the dogs that
Speaker 1: has jumped has been what's referred to as a long
Speaker 1: nose breed, so that's a Labrador, a Collie retriever, that
Speaker 1: type of dog. All of them have jumped from the
Speaker 1: same spot. The spot is located between the last two
Speaker 1: parapets on the right hand side of the bridge, and
Speaker 1: every time a dog has jumped, it's also been on
Speaker 1: a clear, sunny day. So, as you pointed out, Devon,
Speaker 1: it is there is one of your dying. They're jumping
Speaker 1: at a rate of one dog per month, So what's
Speaker 1: caused It's an unknown phenomena. There's there's got to be
Speaker 1: something going on, and of course theories abound, and we
Speaker 1: have a number of theories, as always, some that sound plausible,
Speaker 1: some that are a little bit off. Let's take a
Speaker 1: look at them. Uh So. In Celtic mythology, the estate
Speaker 1: is known to be a thin place, meaning that it
Speaker 1: is an area between between two worlds where Heaven and
Speaker 1: Earth meet, and because the veil is really thin there,
Speaker 1: the animal can sensitor the dogs can sense it. So
Speaker 1: some believe that because they can sense the bridge between
Speaker 1: no pun intended, these two worlds, they're attracted to it
Speaker 1: and in their excitements to get to this new place
Speaker 1: that they know is they're they're jumping off the bridge
Speaker 1: before they're realizing where they are, and so unbeknownst to them,
Speaker 1: basically they're they're so excited they just go for it
Speaker 1: and then discover too late that now they're falling. Huh m.
Speaker 1: Other reports say the Overton houses hunted and that maybe
Speaker 1: the spirits of the dogs who have died before are
Speaker 1: luring the new dogs over because that sounds like a thing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really it does. It's possible, it could be. We
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, that weed by a dog be a
Speaker 1: little odd. I don't even want to know, just little
Speaker 1: ghostly piles of pooh period. I mean, dogs are pretty friendly, right,
Speaker 1: So like that's the thing is you think? Okay, but
Speaker 1: if a dog came back, why would that be the
Speaker 1: thing that they do? Like, hey, you know it's gonna
Speaker 1: be fun. Is killing a bunch of other dogs? Well,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe they're just having fun and playing hey, co
Speaker 1: follow me, co follow me, not realizing that the other
Speaker 1: dog isn't a spirit as well quotes there. Or perhaps
Speaker 1: they think they're doing him a favorite because doggy having
Speaker 1: so so awesome. Or it could be the reverse. It
Speaker 1: could be that their demon doggies and they're just doing
Speaker 1: doing evil. So they're the dogs from Ghostbusters basically yea
Speaker 1: evil dogs. Remember those? Yeah I do. Yeah, those were
Speaker 1: demon doggies. I've never heard them referred to as demon doggies,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna run demon Okay. The next theory animal
Speaker 1: behaviors were brought to the bridge to try and figure
Speaker 1: out what's going on because nobody knows why the dogs
Speaker 1: are leaping, and they wanted to see what would happen
Speaker 1: and try and make whatever observations they could to get
Speaker 1: down to the bottom of so brought a truckload of
Speaker 1: dogs down and just observed them plumbing into their desks,
Speaker 1: is how they So, based on the bridge's construction, it's
Speaker 1: believed that what's going on is the dog's senses are
Speaker 1: going into overload. Here's how how the construction of the
Speaker 1: bridge is set up. The walls which they're jumping off
Speaker 1: of our eighteen inches thick stone eighteen inches thicks and
Speaker 1: it's got ivy growing over the top of it in
Speaker 1: spots which is higher, which makes it above the plane
Speaker 1: where a dog of that size can normally see. So
Speaker 1: they don't have an idea that there's something else there,
Speaker 1: So there there's sense of sight is deceived. The other
Speaker 1: thing is that, of course it's going over a stream.
Speaker 1: There's water falling onto rocks, and if you've ever been
Speaker 1: on any kind of stone structure above a stream, the
Speaker 1: echo can make it quite so now they can't rely
Speaker 1: on their sense of hearing. While surveying the area. The
Speaker 1: animal behaviors wanted to try and get down to the
Speaker 1: bottom of it, so they started checking out the area
Speaker 1: around and underneath the bridge, and they think that they
Speaker 1: They say that they have found clues indicating that there's
Speaker 1: a large population of mink living in the undergrowth below
Speaker 1: the bridge. So the theory is is that the dogs
Speaker 1: are on the bridge, they can't really see what's they
Speaker 1: can't see over the edge, they can't hear very well.
Speaker 1: But then they catch this really strong smell of mink.
Speaker 1: And I have read accounts that evidently they are extremely extreme.
Speaker 1: They're like ferrets and all those things, and the they
Speaker 1: have a really strong owner. That's why is it for
Speaker 1: crab page for example. I didn't know that, but they are.
Speaker 1: They're really strong smelling, so the dogs can smell that.
Speaker 1: Now we'll go back to one of the facts that
Speaker 1: links every case, which happens on a clear, sunny day,
Speaker 1: so there's heat rising from underneath the bridge. It's in
Speaker 1: that air current is carrying that scent over, whereas on
Speaker 1: a cool or windy day, the dogs wouldn't notice it
Speaker 1: as much. And it's all dogs that are traditionally bred
Speaker 1: to be hunters, so they're basic instinct is to go
Speaker 1: for that, to chase that, right, I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: what they're bred to do, chase things like that exactly us. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: they jump up on the bridge to pursue this smell.
Speaker 1: And once they're up there and they realize where they're
Speaker 1: at their momentum. Unfortunately then carries them right over the
Speaker 1: brink and it's too late. Yeah, I could see the
Speaker 1: first time around. I could see that. But the ones
Speaker 1: that repeat it the second that they're trying to do
Speaker 1: it again, It's like, dude, you know this so stranger,
Speaker 1: so odd is that these dogs are happily doing it
Speaker 1: again and nobody knows why that is. Yeah, dogs are
Speaker 1: pretty good at learning not to do things that hurt
Speaker 1: them pretty quick. You would think, Uh, there there has
Speaker 1: been and I say this with some hesitation, there has
Speaker 1: been a study done of the sense of the animals
Speaker 1: that they found underneath the bridge of the droppings of
Speaker 1: because they found mink, they found mice, and I can't
Speaker 1: remember what the third animal was. And I watched their
Speaker 1: their experiments because they videotaped the whole thing, and they
Speaker 1: bunch of dogs in the field one at a time.
Speaker 1: They would let them go and see which smell canister
Speaker 1: they went to. But there was nothing to indicate how
Speaker 1: accurate this was. In other words, was the mink at
Speaker 1: the same odor level as the other two containers anything
Speaker 1: like that. It was It was almost positive that this
Speaker 1: supposed study was for one of those shows, the sensationalized shows.
Speaker 1: Oh well, we're gonna get to the bottom of it
Speaker 1: in today's episode. And you don't know how well this
Speaker 1: experiment was set. And they did it with ten dogs.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, ten dogs. Seven out of ten went for
Speaker 1: the mink. They go nuts over the man. They didn't
Speaker 1: go they didn't go bonkers. But the ones that went
Speaker 1: for the mink did go straight towards it. They didn't
Speaker 1: they didn't even bother with the other ones. But again,
Speaker 1: we don't know. Maybe the guy had put tons and
Speaker 1: tons of mink scent in there and not a whole
Speaker 1: lot in the other two because he doesn't know because
Speaker 1: he can't smell it to the proper proportions. So there's there.
Speaker 1: It's dubious to me as to the validity of that study.
Speaker 1: So I I don't I don't know that that one's
Speaker 1: very plausible to to rely upon. The other theory that
Speaker 1: I've got here goes even farther, and it's not aliens
Speaker 1: before you jump in. The aliens are my favorite thing.
Speaker 1: I know they are, but even I can't draw a
Speaker 1: connection for aliens on this one. No, it is depression
Speaker 1: and suicidal tendencies. Here's the way the theory is going.
Speaker 1: We all we all know that dogs are really tuned
Speaker 1: into our emotions and the people they're around, they tend
Speaker 1: to pick up those those cues and they'll react accordingly.
Speaker 1: If somebody's sad, doggy sad, you're having the dogs happy.
Speaker 1: So this theory that that is out there is that
Speaker 1: the people who are walking their dogs across the bridge
Speaker 1: are already in a depressed state of mind. Dog throws
Speaker 1: himself to his desk and and they are looking out
Speaker 1: over this vista and they're seeing how far down it is,
Speaker 1: and they starting to contemplate maybe they don't want to
Speaker 1: go on, but they're not sure. And that is being
Speaker 1: transferred to their dogs somehow extremely well, to the point
Speaker 1: that the dog is then running and jumping over the edge. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I I could see that for like one or two,
Speaker 1: but six hundred and fifty years, there's no way. Well,
Speaker 1: and here's the other fact that to me disputes that
Speaker 1: theory and and just puts it in, puts it to
Speaker 1: the ground. In the entire hundred plus years that that
Speaker 1: bridge has been there, one person has died from falling
Speaker 1: off of the bridge, throwing themselves are just accidentally having
Speaker 1: This is actually a really terrible story, but it was.
Speaker 1: And a local man named Kevin moy he was evidently
Speaker 1: severely depressed, having to illusions, and he threw his two
Speaker 1: week old son off of the bridge and then tried
Speaker 1: to jump himself. He now this, his state of mind
Speaker 1: was obviously not solid because he thought that he was
Speaker 1: the anti Christ and that his son was Satan. That
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty far out there. And think again, if
Speaker 1: it's only one person doing it, then that means that
Speaker 1: to me, logically, this whole depression state from my owner
Speaker 1: causes I don't Yeah, And why wouldn't be just this
Speaker 1: bridge because there are plenty of places around the world
Speaker 1: where people take their dogs and contemplate suicide. There's no
Speaker 1: reason for it to be this one bridge. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: I'm leaning towards the mink theory. I think what they
Speaker 1: needed is get some guys with playing throwers down there
Speaker 1: and the barbecue all the mank and make sure they
Speaker 1: don't come, make sure they know not to come back.
Speaker 1: And then at the same time that's going to sort
Speaker 1: of erratic hit the mink smell with the flamethrowers and
Speaker 1: then and then just send a lot of dogs over
Speaker 1: the bridge and see if they jump. Yeah, that that's
Speaker 1: one way to go. As much as I hate to
Speaker 1: say it, I kind of agree with Joe in terms
Speaker 1: of the mink theory. Here's another little fact about the mink.
Speaker 1: Mink were introduced to Scotland about a hundred years ago,
Speaker 1: years ago something like that, but their populations in the
Speaker 1: wild hadn't gotten that large, and it was only in
Speaker 1: the fifties that it was known that there was a
Speaker 1: large mink population just living in the wilds, which would
Speaker 1: Land lend credence to. In the fifties is when all
Speaker 1: this started. And there's you know, some massive warren of
Speaker 1: mink living underneath that bridge because it's near water and
Speaker 1: all these other things that they eat. So there is
Speaker 1: some some factors there that make me lean that way,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. Yeah, I guess as far as
Speaker 1: all of the theories go, that's the one that I
Speaker 1: find the most plausible as well. But you know, why
Speaker 1: a dog would do it a second or third or
Speaker 1: fourth time baffling to me. You know, I know some
Speaker 1: dumb dogs, but not that many dumb dogs, I mean,
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's a hard that's a hard one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a big mystery to me. Is it a haunting?
Speaker 1: Is it another world? Is it this animal instinct that's
Speaker 1: driven by scent, that's that's causing him to jump? We
Speaker 1: we just don't know. There's no hard evidence to exactly
Speaker 1: what's causing and we can't ask the dogs. We'll wait
Speaker 1: a second, maybe we can, Oh, we can we hire
Speaker 1: a dog whisperer. Really had to go there. Yeah, pretty
Speaker 1: much a story about dogs, of course. Okay, Well, I'm
Speaker 1: glad we got that out of the way. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's it indeed mysterious, but I'm kind of
Speaker 1: curious stuff they have signs posted on the bridge. As
Speaker 1: far as I know, there are no signs posted on
Speaker 1: the bridge, And and I know that I don't remember
Speaker 1: who said why do people keep walking their dogs there?
Speaker 1: It evidently wasn't one of those things that was widely
Speaker 1: reported to the public or that people knew about until
Speaker 1: recent history, when people have started the stories hit the
Speaker 1: internet and it's been on shows and people are figuring
Speaker 1: it out now. And so I, like I said before,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that anybody that takes a walk in
Speaker 1: that area make sure that they have their dog on
Speaker 1: the leash before they crossed the bridge. Yeah, that's just shocking.
Speaker 1: I mean, make sure your dog is not strong enough
Speaker 1: to take you over with him too. That would be
Speaker 1: a problem. Why wouldn't you put signs up? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't you put like, you know, chain link fences
Speaker 1: all over the place. Wouldn't you put a sign up? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't you know. That seems like the responsible caring
Speaker 1: thing to do, Like a sign at either end that
Speaker 1: just says caution, leash your dog. No, no suicide area. No,
Speaker 1: it can't be. It can't be written in English because
Speaker 1: that's racist. It would have to be written. It had
Speaker 1: to be one of those big yellow and black diamond
Speaker 1: shaped science It's got like a sort of picture of
Speaker 1: a dog leaping up a bridge, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: you think, I sure they could come up with some
Speaker 1: kind of international sign for dogs suicide. Yeah, let's look
Speaker 1: on the net. That's probably already is Scotland. They speak English,
Speaker 1: they do speak it, funny. Yeah, But suppose that somebody
Speaker 1: would like say like Japan, and they hear about this
Speaker 1: bridge and they come there with their dog just to
Speaker 1: check it out. They I know, I know, they deserve
Speaker 1: to lose their dog, but maybe they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So anyway, we always solved that mystery. Maybe not. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think we solve that mystery as it is. Well,
Speaker 1: if anybody else there has motivation to read about this story,
Speaker 1: you can certainly go ahead and read all about it.
Speaker 1: We've got the links to this particular story on our website.
Speaker 1: That website is Thinking Sideways podcast dot com. If you
Speaker 1: have some alternate theories that you want to tell us about,
Speaker 1: or you just know some other strange stories that you'd
Speaker 1: like to hear us cover, feel free to go ahead
Speaker 1: and send us an email. That email address is thinking
Speaker 1: Sideways Podcast at gmail dot com. And with that, we're
Speaker 1: going to go ahead and get out of here and
Speaker 1: we will talk to you next time. Everybody, I still
Speaker 1: say it's aliens