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The Choking Doberman is an urban legend that originated in the United States.[1] [2] The story involves a protective pet found by its owner gagging on human fingers lodged in its throat. As the story unfolds, the dog's owner discovers an intruder whose hand is bleeding from the dog bite.
A woman goes out for the evening with friends. Upon her return, she is greeted by her pet Doberman choking in the hallway. Alarmed, she takes the pet to the veterinarian. The vet announces that he must perform a tracheotomy on the animal and he will call her when he has news. When the woman arrives home, the vet calls and tells her to leave the house at once. The dog was choking on three human fingers. The woman calls the police, who search the house. They discover the burglar, hiding in a closet, passed out from blood loss caused by having three fingers bitten off.
he first verifiable appearance of the legend is in the Phoenix New Times on June 24, 1981, pictured to the right.
From the article, in part[1]
:
Gagging Dog Story Baffles Police
It happened in Las Vegas. A woman returned from work and found her large dog, a Doberman, lying on the floor gasping for air. Concerned over the animal's welfare, she immediately loaded the pet into her car and drove him to a veterinarian.
...
According to the story, police arrived at her house and found an unconscious intruder, sans fingers, lying in a closet. New Times learned of the story from an employee of a large industrial plant in the Valley. He said he had gotten the story third hand from another employee who in turn had said he heard from a woman whose relatives in Las Vegas knew the dog's owner. As of Friday New Times was not able to nail down the identity of the Doberman's mistress.
According to a spokesman at the Las Vegas Sun, that paper, too, was very interested in breaking the story. Unfortunately, even though the story was all over Vegas last Thursday, the paper - and police - weren't able to dig up one shred of evidence to prove the incident ever occurred. "The police are baffled," the Sun spokesman said.
This series takes a brief look at some of the more well-known urban legends out there. None of them stand up to any serious investigation but that, of course doesn't stop people from firmly believing and spreading them. Many have last for decades , often with slight 'updating' and improvement of the story line to more successfully fool the current generation of the time. In the modern era of social media, these things are literally everywhere and often widely believed. Many are definitely good for a laugh when you think how gullible many people are.