FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2007-08-04

SHAGGY DOG STORY IS NO SURPRISE SAY MONSTER HUNTERS

According to The Guardian, the revelation that the photograph of a `beast` on Dartmoor actually shows a Newfoundland dog named `Troy`  is a “Blow to Monster Watchers”.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The photographs,  purporting to show a ‘monster’ that turned out to be nothing more than a Newfoundland dog, come as no surprise to mystery animal experts at The Centre for Fortean Zoology – the world’s largest mystery animal research group. The team were shown the pictures at the beginning of June, and identified the animal as a large dog. They were amazed that photos made it into the national papers at all. The ‘revelation’ comes as no blow, because they knew it from the start and didn’t think the story worth pursuing.

Cryptozoologist Richard Freeman was near the mark when he told Sun writer John Sturgis last week that he thought the pictures showed a Newfoundland/mastiff cross.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology, the world’s only full time, scientific organisation for the study of anomalous beasts, investigate reports of weird creatures all around the globe as well as in the UK. They have no doubt that there are odd animals on Dartmoor, including feral big cats and a population of wild boar.

For the record, they believe that the most recent film purporting to be a great white shark, is actually of a basking shark, although the previous film from earlier in July may well be the real thing.

If the public are interested in genuine monsters, then they could do no better than to come to the Centre’s annual convention, the Weird Weekend. Held from 17^th –19^th of August at Woolfardisworthy, North Devon. It features the largest collection of monster experts in the world, and talks this year include Ukrainian biologist Grigoriy Panchenko on the almasty - a Russian ape man, Oll Lewis on Welsh lake monsters, Mike Hallowell on a 20^th Century dragon worship cult (and the object of their veneration), Ronan Coghlan on fairy lore, and Paul Vella on the sasquatch.

Tickets cost £20 for the three days (in advance) and are available from the CFZ website on www.cfz.org.uk or by emailing cfz@...