Amazing Picture of Clifford, the Big Black Dog: Fact Check

Story:

Clifford, the big black dog. He’s huge..

Other Versions

1. Amazingly, this is a real dog that has grown way bigger than its owners imagined.
2This owner is trying to get her over-sized pet to sit – although its head might still hit the ceiling! We can’t imagine how big it is standing up!

2. A giant Fukushima mutant dog

Fact Check:

An amazing picture popular online purports to show surprisingly huge Clifford, a big black dog. It also shows a woman standing short next to the ‘domestic pet’, appearing to give some command to it. The picture appears online with various stories. While some versions say the owner of the over-sized pet is trying to get rid of it, others say it shows a giant Fukushima mutant dog. None of those claims is true; the dog in picture is not even real.

Various Stories about Clifford as Big Black Dog

The unusual picture is in circulation online since at least 2013. Some stories at the time said the ‘largest dog in the world’ is facing the threat of abandonment. They explain Emma Holmes bought a puppy from EBay website in March 2011. Allegedly, to her surprise, the dog named Pingo grew tremendously in size, eating a lot and so the owner is trying to get rid of the big black dog.

Another version in circulation says the giant Fukushima mutant dog, bred in Japan is the result of an in-vitro experiment. They say the gametic maternal cells were infused with Fukushima irradiated male DNA and then the eggs were grown in vitro. Those stories also claim the dog is still growing and scientists are not sure of its maximum growth.

Not Real Dog

The initial stories saying the dog named Pingo is facing the risk of abandonment originated from an article published on prank website jornalvdd.com in November 2013. Consequently, internet space also witnessed various memes around it, like the giant dog Clifford went through a Goth phase. Again, there are no credible reports the dog in picture is the result of an experiment in Japan. According to Guinness World Records website guinnessworldrecords.com, Zeus, a Great Dane is the world’s tallest dog. Zeus measured an incredible 3 ft 8.0 inches from foot to withers. The giant dog from Otsego, Michigan died of old age in September 2014.

Coming back to the picture in question, the dog in the picture is not even a living being. It is in fact a giant sculpture made by a Taxidermist for conceptual artist Peter Coffin. The sculpture is a lifelike rendering of a Great Dane, scaled up to the size of a small horse. You can see some other pictures of the giant black dog on the American artist’s website petercoffinstudio.com.

So, the aforementioned claims about Clifford as the big black dog in picture are just hoaxes. Nonetheless, the visual impact of the dog sculpture is so real and beautiful; visitors often take pictures around it in different poses.

Hoax or Fact:

Hoax.