Stray dogs cause trouble for travelling circus

"The van barks, but the circus moves on"

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In one of the stranger stories to come to light this week, two large stray dogs apparently scared passers-by in parts of the town of Hämeenlinna on Wednesday. Emergency services received several reports of the loose hounds on Wednesday afternoon.
      Police went to investigate and found the owner, who rounded up the dogs himself. The two beasts are Estrela Mountain Dogs, a breed originally from Portugal (see link).
      What lifted the story above the everyday is that the dogs were seen by circus owner and ringmaster Sven Berglund, whose travelling Circus Apollo was performing at a school playing field in the town.
     
Berglund became alarmed as the relatively large dogs advanced on an area that included a school and the circus enclosure, which had some two dozen animals in it.
      He set about warning people of the dogs, which he considered hostile, by turning on the loudspeaker on the top of his van. After this, animal trainer Berglund lured the dogs away by barking into the microphone. The dogs followed the loudspeaker van and scratched the sides as they attempted to jump at the doors.
      Berglund claims that one of the two dogs had attacked someone. However, by Thursday afternoon the police had received no requests to investigate such an attack, nor any other information of possible bitings.
     
On the other hand, circus director Berglund seems to have suffered from the incident. Rumours went around, perhaps fuelled by the loudspeaker stunt, that the dogs actually belonged to Circus Apollo.
      Wednesday evening's show saw a markedly reduced attendance, and there were comments about how it could be possible that the circus could go on in spite of its "killer dogs".
      There have been cancellations, too. Friday morning's scheduled appearance in Riihimäki will play to only around 300 people - a considerable shortfall when the big top holds 600.
      One local school headmaster apparently called, concerned as to whether it would be possible any longer to hold the school's end of term celebrations on Saturday in the circus tent as planned.
      Berglund is at a loss as to the source of the rumour, but he suspects certain locals have been putting around negative stories on purpose. There was an earlier incident where the circus director argued with some people over the use of alcohol close to the fenced-off circus area.
      He is naturally irritated by this blow, as these days travelling circuses are not a goldmine at the best of times.
     
Päivi Koskinen, chairman of the Estrela breed association in Finland, was also confused by the goings-on. She noted that the breed has a strong instinct to defend, for example in their own yard, but that when they run away they tend to avoid people rather than look for trouble.
      Police will be questioning the dogs' owner in the next few days and investigating whether the case involves negligence.


Links:
  Estrela Mountain Dog

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