In the Scottish county of West Dunbartonshire, on a hill above the River Clyde, stands Overtoun House, a fine example of mid-19th-century Scottish manor architecture. At first the carriages could not reach it because the access road from the east was too steep, so in 1892 a bridge began to be built on the west side of the property, which was completed 3 years later. The central arch bridges the 15 meter drop into the deep valley through which the Overtoun Burn runs , and is flanked on each side by a smaller arch through which a path runs on each bank.
This bridge is famous, not for being one of the most representative constructions of Scottish architecture, but because for several decades it has been known as the “suicide dog bridge” .
There are about 50 documented cases of dogs jumping off the bridge , facing a fall of 15 meters, although it is believed that in the last 50 years almost a hundred may have been thrown into the void. One such case is that of a Mrs. Mackinnon. As he told the media , when one day he was crossing the bridge with his Border collie -a type of Scottish sheepdog-, “ something took hold of Bonnie the moment we approached the bridge . At first she froze, but then it was as if she was possessed by a strange energy, she ran and jumped. I was sure he was dead.” When she got to where she had fallen, the dog began to move and tried to get up . Interestingly, not all dogs jump; those with long snouts such as labradors, retrievers or collies like Mrs. Mackinnon ‘s usually do.
It is not surprising that rumors began to spread about curses, supernatural presences that make them feel persecuted or that they commit suicide because their owners want to commit suicide and, out of empathy, jump into the void. The supernatural explanation, now ardently defended by a professor of religion and philosophy in Glasgow named Paul Owens, began to take hold in October 1994 when a 32-year-old man, Kevin Moy, dropped his two-week-old son down the bridge because he believed he was the Devil . At trial Moy – a depressed lab technician – testified that he was sure the devil had put a birthmark on the boy’s head and that he and the baby were to blame for the Gulf War. He was also afraid that they would destroy the world by infecting humanity with a virus, and so he had to save the world by killing his son and himself. In fact Moy attempted suicide several times after dropping the creature.
As we well know, dogs do not commit suicide. So why do they jump? Does a ghost encourage them to do it? “After 11 years of investigation I am convinced that a ghost is behind all this,” says Owens. Apparently we are facing an error of perception of dogs . First, because the arrival at the bridge is an innocuous-looking asphalt road bordered on both sides by impenetrable trees and bushes. A family with a dog would approach the bridge like any park in the area that had a walkway. There are no slopes or precipices along the way, so the dog deduces that it is on a plain. On the bridge the stone walls create visual and sound barriers for a dog, and as the top of the bridge walls are covered with ivy, it creates an optical illusion for him. From the ground a dog does not realize that there is a fall of 15 meters until the last moment , when it is already too late to change the direction of the jump.
But what makes you jump? How to explain Bonnie’s behavior? The ethologist David Sands and Bob Hill, a Protestant pastor who with his wife have run a shelter in Overtoun House for more than two decades, have it clear: the smell of animals that comes from the Overtoun Burn River. More precisely, of the minks that live there. Sands says that the dog “suicide” began in the same years as the invasion of the American mink in the area. This animal has glands that secrete an extremely odorous substance that drives dogs crazy, and this was demonstrated in an experiment for Scottish television. This also explains why large-snouted dogs, which are much more sensitive to scent, jump.
Of course, this explanation does not satisfy everyone. To some, there are two puzzling facts that Sands’s hypothesis does not account for: one, that all dogs jump over roughly the same spot; and two, that the dogs that do not die in the fall try to jump again. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support such claims.
