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LISTEN | Full interview with Irish forest manager John O’Reilly:As It Happens6:02The ‘lion’ filmed roaming the Irish countryside is a Newfoundland dog named Mouse
When John O’Reilly first saw the footage of a large animal with a puffy tail and a mane skulking into the forest on the southwest coast of Ireland, he had two contradictory thoughts.
“I said there's no way we could believe that there's a lion moving in an Irish wood. No way,” he told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.
But, on the other hand, he said: “It sure as hell looked like a lion.”
It turns out, it was not a lion, but rather a brown Newfoundland dog sporting a fresh lion haircut.
The saga, O’Reilly says, began with some timber harvesters working for his forest management company in Ireland’s County Clare.
“Some of the guys working in the woods had started to pick up on the fact that there was a large animal moving around the wood,” he said. “They didn't get a very good sight of the animal."
Then, last week, one of their truck drivers captured the creature on camera.
The video footage, which has since gone viral, shows a large brown animal with a sleek body and a shaggy head, and a little tuft of fur on the tip of its tail, running into the darkness of the trees.
There are, of course, no known lions in the forests of Ireland. Nevertheless, O’Reilly couldn’t deny his own two eyes. He figured it must be someone's exotic pet.
An Garda Síochána, Ireland's national police force, investigated reports of a lion roaming the countryside, and identified the culprit as a Newfoundland dog with an odd haircut. (An Garda Síochána Clare)He decided he had no choice but to head over to the local police station.
"I said, ‘Guys you're not going to believe it,'" O’Reilly said, adding it was a real video from one of his workers and not AI-generated. "They were quite gobsmacked as well.”
Police reached out to their colleagues in the area the animal had been spotted. On Thursday, An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police force, reported the mystery had been solved, and the culprit found.
“Turns out it was just a very committed Newfoundland dog with a fresh haircut,” police said in a social media post.
The dog in question is called Mouse, and according to police, is “delighted with his recent viral video clip.”
It’s not the first time dogs have masqueraded as other animals. In 2013, a Labradoodle named Charles the Monarch prompted 911 calls in Norfolk, Va., because of his lion cut. And last year, a zoo in China came under fire for painting chow chows to look like baby pandas.
Mouse’s owners have not made themselves known, but O’Reilly still has questions.
“The first thing when you look at the dog and you see the animal, you’ll say, 'Who in God's name shaved a dog to look like a lion?'” he said.
In fact, Siobhan McHaffie, director of operations at the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told BBC News that "unless it's for medical reasons, shaving a Newfoundland's coat is generally not recommended."
"Their thick double coat plays a vital role in regulating temperature and protecting their skin. Removing it can lead to sunburn, overheating, and other health complications," she said.
O’Reilly has a theory about the unusual hairdo.
“I can only assume that he was trimmed for Halloween to bring around for a trick-or-treat,” O’Reilly said.
“And he would be quite an animal to bring around for a trick-or-treat, because if you open the front door and saw him standing at the door, you would, for three, four seconds get a fair old shock.”