A beautiful puppy dog worth over $2 million dollars! Well, yes I see how it is worth so much!
According to Yahoo News, a property developer paid the equivalent of $1.9 million for a 1-year-old, golden-haired mastiff at a luxury pet fair held last Tuesday in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
“They have lion’s blood and are top-of-the-range mastiff studs,” Zhang Gengyun, the dog’s breeder, was quoted as saying.
Despite their ferocious tendencies, these gargantuan balls of hair with humungous snouts and tongues have become a symbol of status in China, mostly because they look like the result of a lion mating with a St. Bernard.
The puppy was 31 inches tall and 200 pounds.
“Pure Tibetan mastiffs are very rare, just like our nationally treasured pandas, so the prices are so high,” Zhang continued.
The sale takes the top spot from “Big Splash,” a red mastiff reportedly sold for the equivalent of $1.5 million in 2011.
The buyer was a 56-year-old who hopes to breed dogs himself, Yahoo reports.
Many of the fair’s attendees were wary that such high prices are generated not by actual worth but by agreements made by breeders.
“A lot of the sky-high priced deals are just breeders hyping each other up, and no money actually changes hands,” Zhang said.
Mastiffs are mainly for show, but are also very protective, as they are descendants of hunting dogs used by nomadic tribes in central Asia and Tibet.