Hercules, World's Biggest Dog

Netlore Archive: Emailed image of a gargantuan dog named Hercules, purportedly the Guinness Record holder for World's Biggest Dog

Description: Emailed image
Circulating since: April 2007
Status: Fake / False

Email example contributed by Shelby B., 10 April 2007:

Hercules: The World's Biggest Dog Ever According to Guinness World Records

Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.

With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200lb. limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just grew".... and grew. and grew.


Click to Enlarge

Comments: I urge anyone who thinks this photograph is real -- or even might be real -- to seek treatment from a mental health professional. Right away. Thanks to some clever Photoshop manipulation, the dog pictured here (which appears to be a Neapolitan mastiff, not an English mastiff as claimed) is roughly twice its natural size.

It is true that back in 2001, Joe Flynn, the owner of a 282-pound English mastiff named Hercules (see photo), was told by the Guinness World Records folks that his was the world's "heaviest" dog at the time.

This is not that animal.

Update #1: Though I remain 100% convinced that this photo is a hoax, I feel obliged to ackowledge that a few folks have contacted me to say they believe the size of the dog is plausible. I don't see how, given that Neapolitan mastiffs generally top out at around 29 inches tall at the shoulder and 165 pounds in weight, according to information supplied by breeders. Maybe those people and the horse in the picture are unusually small. In any case, I find it odd that neither the photographer nor the owner of the behemoth has surfaced to validate it.

Update #2: World's Tallest Dog... for Real, This Time - A harlequin great Dane named Gibson is the current Guinness World Record holder.

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Last updated: 04/08/08

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