The story goes that local youths just found it, photographed it, then sold it to papers (yay, humanity!) Now, this happened near Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which brought up theories about the government doing weird experiments. Its dinosaur beak was pointed out along with the speculation that it could be a previously undiscovered prehistoric mammal. 

Other possible identifications of the creature included a dog and a turtle without its shell (but turtles don't have teeth).

It's also apparently not a demon dog who only serves the great and powerful Zuul (LOL)