Beast of Bowen Island

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LunarCarnivore
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Beast of Bowen Island

Post by LunarCarnivore »

This post is a little late, as the drama already played itself out last year, and it turned out to be a wolf-dog hybrid, but it was a neat story, and I followed it closely when it was happening.

Basically, I came in to work one day, the morning after the full moon, and there was a headline in the The Province (British Columbian newspaper) that read "Wolf-like creature attacks pets on Bowen Island" with this photo:
Image

I pretty much crapped myself.

Over the next few months, the "Beast of Bowen" continued to kill pets and wildlife on the Island, and generally kept the community on edge. Wildlife officer's determined it was most likely a Wolf-Dog hybrid, and that it was large enough it brought down a Stag. It evaded capture for a long-time, and eventually a local trapper obtained a license to fire his gun on the island (normally not allowed) and killed it. It was indeed a large Wolf-dog.

here are some relevant articles:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/20 ... bowen.html

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/18 ... -lockdown/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... f-dog.html

This all happened about a year ago, and was resolved, but I'm posting it here now for 2 reasons:

1) It played out very much like a classic horror movie plot, which is cool. The trapper who killed the Beast was a 72 year old named "Trapper Al" and seems a living stereotype. The local vet was also involved, trying to catch the Beast with a tranquilizer gun, and he has the very horro movie name of Dr. Alistair Westcott. Pretty cool.

2) I recently visited Bowen Island, and asked the waitress at the bar I visited about the Beast. She said that it was a scary time to be living on the Island, and that everyone was gllad when it ended. She then dropped her tone and said that there were some people who think the Wolf-dog Trapper Al killed was a decoy, because even though the killings have stopped, people still come across large canine footprints in the woods from time to time, or hear howling. The island has no indigenous wolves or coyotes. Probably just island hype to mess with a townie, but still keeps my imagination working.

Cool stuff all around.
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Re: Beast of Bowen Island

Post by Scott Gardener »

Sad that the wolf hybrid ended up getting shot, but definitely a horror writer's gold mine!
Taking a Gestalt approach, since it's the "in" thing...
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Re: Beast of Bowen Island

Post by LunarCarnivore »

Scott Gardener wrote:Sad that the wolf hybrid ended up getting shot, but definitely a horror writer's gold mine!
Yes. I doubt tit could have been rehabilitated, and people were afraid it would have attacked a child if it had remained on the loose, so I can see why they took those measures, but it is sad. What's really sad is the pathetic human being who abandoned a volatile breed, allowing it to swim the channel and wreak havoc. People need to take responsibility for their animals.
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