W H E R E / W H E N :Overtoun is a bridge located near Dumbarton in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It was completed in 1895.


W H Y: Since the days of its construction this bridge has attracted international media attention because of the number of dogs who have leaped and died there, due to the rocks 50 feet (15m) below.

  It comprises three arches: a large central arch spanning a deep valley at the bottom of which flows the Overtoun Burn, flanked on each side by lower, smaller pedestrian arches

• Overtoun Bridge has a striking Gothic structure. Behind it, there is a quiet and shrouded by fog house, The Overtoun House. This building, once was the home of Lord (a wealthy Victorian philanthropist) and Lady Overtoun.

(Overtoun House)

D O G S    D E A T H

Studies have shown that since the 1950s or 1960s numerous dogs have leaped from the bridge at the rate of about one per year. Dogs that leap over the bridge fall 50 feet (15 m) onto the waterfalls below. The only linking factors for this unexplained event are that dogs mostly jump from the same side of the bridge, in clear weather, and they are breeds with long snouts. The most incredible thing is that the dogs that survived after breaking his fall with the water,badly wounded, tried again towards the center of the bridge to jump incredibly again.And there were many theories to explain this mystery: 

• That dogs were mesmerised or attracted to the sound of water or some kind of ‘optical illusion’.
• That nearby electricity pylons produced something that confused the dogs. 
• Also there was a theory about demons and supernatural forces, and it was in 1994 when Kevin Moy , a local influenced by stories of false incantations and supernatural forces , threw her baby from the bridge to clear the supposed demon of the area

The people of Scotland. to prevent an dogs' death, sent several veterinarians and scientists to investigate the mystery. They concluded that the visual isolation which produced the high stone walls of the bridge could encourage and alert the best developed senses of dogs : smelling and hearing . After studying and discarding the origin of high-frequency sounds in the area, they focused their studies on a smell that could emanate that place. Dr. Sands , a researcher,discovered that not all breeds were called to perform those jumps. They were hunting dogs : Labradors, Collies and Golden Retriever. So he concluded it had to be an animal’s smell. 

He noticed that suicides began during the same year in which there was the invasion of the American mink in the area.

 

This animal has glands that secrete an extremely smelly substance that gets dogs crazy and serves to mark their territory. The bridge area, habitat of minks is a very close and lacking canal so that the substance is naturally better preserved and its smell attracts them easily.

P O I N T   O F   V I E W

I think that dogs are not aware that they will die and they probably do not know that jumping they can die so for me, it’s not a suicide.

It is so sad that many dogs died there due to those smells, they didnot know that jumping they were going to die also it's sad the fact that there wasn't any signal to prevent dogs owners from dogs' suicides.

Also I think they shouldn't have invented those kind of extremely theories, they should have studied it earlier to avoid those deaths but it's important the fact that they didn't trust those theories and investigated that mystery and then they solved it. 

And for me, there is a solution and it is to put grills on the bridge to make it impossible for dogs to jump, another solution could be to put some mattress and a trampoline below the bridge.

G L O S S A R Y

Bridge: Puente

Leap: saltar

Arch: Arco 

Flow: Corriente

Pedestrian: Peatonal 

Striking: Llamativo

Fog: Niebla

Philanthropist: Filántropo

Breeds with long snouts: Razas con hocicos largos

Mesmerised:  Hipnotizado

Nearby: Cercano

Electricity pylons: Torres de electricidad