Can animals haunt you?

I understand that the Animal Planet channel has to keep their programming focused on all things “animal”, but is it a smart move for them to try and jump onto the paranormal bandwagon and feature animal ghost hunting shows?

In my years of reading on the subject of the paranormal, I’ve come across maybe a few handful stories about the spirits of pets coming back to haunt their owners. Usually in a positive manner. These stories have always seemed way to far fetched for me, so how this show is going to be received by the audience is anyone’s guess.

Check out this new show on Animal Planet:

Source: Pocono Record

By ADAM McNAUGHTON
Pocono Record Writer
November 22, 2009

The owners and employees rarely ventured down to the basement as they went about their business in the 100-year-old building that had become the Candle Shoppe of the Poconos. There just was not very much need to head down there, and besides, there was some seriously creepy stuff in that basement.

There was no way to avoid exploring the basement, however, as the store got set to expand, and employees shared experiences of strange sounds after dark, said the store’s owner, Linda Schlier.

Investigating further, they uncovered a grisly history of animal experiments, which led to a paranormal investigation that turned the candle shop into the subject of an episode of a new show about animal hauntings on the Animal Planet network.

“It wasn’t really a problem for a while,” Schlier said of the basement spookiness.

“Then we started getting really busy, and we stayed open until 8 on Fridays and Saturdays, and after dark the girls in the shop started hearing some weird stuff.”

After looking into the history of the building, which had formerly housed Kelly Antiques, Schlier learned that the shop was built in 1897 as a home for a doctor who worked at the Pocono Biological Laboratories.

A close inspection of the basement turned up old medical equipment and large cages that may have been used to house monkeys for experiments around the turn of the century.

That’s when paranormal investigators got involved.

After contacting the Pennsylvania Paranormal Association and its Scranton-based investigators, Schlier said she began to wonder if something unnatural might be taking place in her candle store.

While still skeptical, the experiences and investigations of the paranormal association — which will be featured on the show — were hard to ignore.

After the producers of “The Haunted” caught wind of the spooky monkey history at the candle shop and the paranormal investigation, they asked to film an episode there.

For four days in July, production crews filmed at the candle shop as investigators examined the basement and a psychic came to try to release the monkey ghosts.