Here is the picture and the message that went with it

Hercules: The World's Biggest Dog Ever According to Guinness World Records

Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and who has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.

With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200 lb. limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just "grew". .. and grew. and grew. and grew.

Kell: Slightly Smaller, But the World's Heaviest Dog Hercules' sheer volume may have won him the Largest Dog world record, but the Heaviest Dog title still rests with Kell who weighed in at 286 pounds in August of 1999. This English Mastiff, however, only has a 32-inch neck - far less than Hercules' 38-incher. Think about that for a second though - 32 inches is a standard waist size for a man! Proud owner Tom Scott said Kell is two years old and is expected to continue to grow for the next two years. Kell needs to be fed 100 lb of beef every week, and drinks gallons of goats' milk to stay healthy...

and here is what I discovered about the story from Snopes, a website dedicated to verifying "urban legends" that make their rounds on the web:

Thanks to Photoshop, the dog pictured above (which appears to be a Neapolitan mastiff, not an English mastiff as claimed) is roughly twice its natural size.

Back in 2001, Joe Flynn, the owner of a 282-pound English mastiff named Hercules, was indeed told by a representative of Guinness World Records that he had the world's largest dog. The picture above is not that animal. Below is the actual picture of Hercules and his owner Joe Flynn.

Hercules: The World's Biggest Dog Ever According to Guinness World Records Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and who has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.

With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200 lb. limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just "grew". .. and grew. and grew. and grew.

Kell: Slightly Smaller, But the World's Heaviest Dog Hercules' sheer volume may have won him the Largest Dog world record, but the Heaviest Dog title still rests with Kell who weighed in at 286 pounds in August of 1999. This English Mastiff, however, only has a 32-inch neck - far less than Hercules' 38-incher. Think about that for a second though - 32 inches is a standard waist size for a man!

Proud owner Tom Scott said Kell is two years old and is expected to continue to grow for the next two years. Kell needs to be fed 100 lb of beef every week, and drinks gallons of goats' milk to stay healthy...