Kicker: A real Frankenstein’s monster

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: 200 years ago, a monster sprang to life in the pages of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

AUDIO: It’s alive. It’s alive. It’s alive!

Two centuries later, 90-year-old Wally Conron says he created a real living, breathing “Frankenstein monster.”  

He now calls it his “life’s regret,” but his intentions were good. He carefully bred his little monster to help a blind lady in Hawaii who needed a guide dog, but her husband had severe allergies. 

So Conron bred what came to be known as the Labradoodle: part Labrador, part poodle and hypoallergenic.

But he says most Labradoodle’s are “either crazy or have a hereditary problem and few of them are entirely healthy. 

Conron said “I realized what I had done within a matter of days;.” He went to the big boss at the Royal Guide Dogs Association and told him “We need to do something about it to control it.”

But it was too late. Word of the new designer crossbreed had spread. And other breeders were already working to breed the profitable pups. 

He said ethical breeders must consider the health of the animal before mixing separate breeds.

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