|
Legend: A pet owner ships the body of a beloved animal by air; unknowing baggage handlers fear they've killed the animal and replace it with a live one.
Example: [Eilbirt, 1991]
Origins: This tale is nearly identical in structure to the Hare Dryer legend: Both
feature persons who, mistakenly believing themselves to be responsible for the death of someone else's pet, try to cover up their culpability by replacing the dead animals — only to find that they have exacerbated an unfortunate situation by substituting a live (or seemingly live) pet in place of one that was already dead.
As anyone who has watched television knows, the substitution of a similar-looking animal for a pet that dies while in the hands of a caretaker is a stock comedic plot. (The owner is rarely fooled by the ruse, of course.) This particular version (with its twist of an already dead animal "dying" again) had been around (according to Brunvand) for "at least a dozen years" by 1988. It enjoyed an upswelling of popularity that year, perhaps due in part to its inclusion in lectures delivered by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North (of Iran-Contra notoreity). More recently, during an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, actor Steven Seagal told this story as having happened to him. Sightings: It's impossible to keep a good legend down, as Click and Clack, the hosts of radio's Car Talk, discovered on Last updated: 2 November 2006 Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008 by snopes.com. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com. Sources:
Also told in:
|
|







feature persons who, mistakenly believing themselves to be responsible for the death of someone else's pet, try to cover up their culpability by replacing the dead animals — only to find that they have exacerbated an unfortunate situation by substituting a live (or seemingly live) pet in place of one that was already dead.
Sources: