Feb 13, 2017; New York, NY, USA; Anka, a grey Pumi and Ayga a white Pumi during at the 141st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

Placebo or not placebo? That is the question. Across the pond, locals in a small Irish village are complaining that fumes from a nearby Pfizer factory that produces Viagra have been sexually exciting men in the area. They claim that even the local dogs walk around with boners.

Villagers told The Sunday Times that the factory’s emissions have polluted air, and possibly the water as well, with the erectile dysfunction medicine. It may sound crazy, but the people of Ringaskiddy, Ireland believe they have some proof in addition to higher-than-usual sex drives. They claim was a baby boom after the factory opened in 1988.

Real or not, the notion has made Ringaskiddy a hotbed for boner poetry:

Barmaid Debbie O’Grady told the Sunday Times: “One whiff and you’re stiff. We’ve been getting the love fumes for years now for free.”

And another clever rhyme from Debbie’s relative Andrew:

Neither he nor his friends claimed to have used the “Pfizer riser”, as they call Viagra. “I’d probably need something that has the opposite effect,” he said.

Meanwhile, Debbie’s mother, Sadie, makes Ringaskiddy sound like the Bermuda Triangle’s sexual cousin:

“We’ve been getting the love fumes for years now for free,” said Debbie’s mother, Sadie, referring to the smoke emanating from one of the chimneys down the road at the Pfizer factory.

“It’s amazing the number of people who come to this village, perhaps out of curiosity, and then never leave,” she added, sipping a whiskey.

Very mysterious.

A Pfizer spokeswoman called the claims nothing more than an “amusing” myth.

[The Sunday Times]

About Jesse Kramer

Jesse is a writer and editor for The Comeback. He has also worked for SI.com and runs The Catch and Shoot, a college basketball website based in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow Jesse on Twitter @Jesse_Kramer.