Germany’s legendary dog-eating catfish dies

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) — A giant catfish that ate a dog and terrorized a German lake for years has washed up dead, but the legend of “Kuno the Killer” lives on.

A gardener discovered the carcass of a 1.5-meter (five-foot) long catfish weighing 35 kilos (77 lbs) this week, a spokesman for the western city of Moenchengladbach said on Friday. Kuno became a local celebrity in 2001 when he sprang from the waters of the Volksgarten park lake to swallow a Dachshund puppy whole. He evaded repeated attempts to capture him.

“He was our Loch Ness monster,” said Uwe Heil, member of “Kuno’s Friends,” a local rock band named after the fish.

Several fishermen identified the carcass as Kuno, but doubts linger.

“That’s not the Kuno we know,” said Leon Cornelius, another member of “Kuno’s Friends.” He said he had seen several huge catfish in the lake, one about 1.8 meters long with a white-spotted nose.

Low water levels and a summer heat wave probably killed the catfish, among the biggest found in Germany. The northern city of Bremen plans to stuff it and put in a museum.