Chupacabras

[Anonymous]

Elmendorf animal will be dug up today by researchers from the University of Iowa.

Fort Worth Star Telegram

 

[Leaferne]

Why didn't he chuck it in a freezer instead of burying it?

 

[Kondoru]

If it was anything like my Freezers, there would be no room...

(mid you, Id `make` room...)

 

[Leaferne]

Not sure where to put this, so I hope I will be forgiven for posting it here.

Chupacabra in Indiana
by Bray

This happened on June 28, 2004, in St.John, Indiana. I was out in my driveway about 9:30 p.m., throwing snap dragons onto my driveway. In front of my house and behind it, there are woods. I looked up and, across the street near the trees, I saw a shadowy figure standing there. At first, I thought it was just a shadow from a bush or something. Then I saw it move. It moved into the light cast by the only street light on my street.

What I saw, I will never forget. It was about 3 to 4 ft. tall, and had little or no hair. I couldn't really tell, but it looked grayish-green in color. It had three claws that I could see on each arm, which were small. It was in a crouched position that made me think of a kangaroo. I could see what looked like spikes running down the back of the creature. At this point, it turned and looked straight at me. It's face looked like a human's except for a few features. There was no nose; just two nostrils, like slits. Its eyes shined a yellow-green color. The eyes seemed to be farther apart and a bit higher up on the head than a human's. When the creature noticed me looking at it, it turned toward me and adopted a stance suggesting it was going to leap toward me. At this point, I turned and ran quickly up to my garage and started punching in the key code number as fast as I could. Once it was open, I dashed up to the door inside, where I paused for one second to look back. The creature was no longer there.

In the days that have passed, I have watched from the window at night to see if it would return, but it has not. But I would never go into those woods searching for it. The creature had looked more than capable of killing me. The closest thing I can relate it to is a Chupacabra. But I've never heard a story in which they were this far north.

 

[Anonymous]

Hopping Creature seen in Beeville Texas

Bud Hendrix of Beeville was delivering the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in the predawn hours last week on Chaparral Trail, in the High Country addition north of the city, when a creature he had never seen before hopped across the road in front of his car.
“I had never seen anything like it,” said Hendrix. “It had long back legs and shorter front legs. It went across the road about 10 feet in front of me and laid down in the grass.”
While delivering the paper, he has seen many of the native animals of the area, especially at this location, but this one was different. For a better view, he backed his car up and aimed the headlights where he had seen the animal lie down.
“Its ears were round and perked up like a Chihuahua’s when they try to listen to something far away,” Hendrix said. “It had eyes like that of a horse or deer. Also it had a pointed nose. It was not afraid me and seemed more curious than anything. It was a weird animal and didn’t seem dangerous or aggressive.” He also observed that the mysterious animal had a brown coat mixed with a darker shade, or black color.
Hendrix is certain it wasn’t a deer, jackrabbit or coyote. He estimated the animal had the size of a medium dog, but added, “It hopped rather than ran” when it crossed in front of his car.
According to Hendrix, he was describing his encounter with a woman in Pettus two days later when she showed him a story on the back page of the Metro section of the July 29 issue of the San Antonio Express-News. The story, titled “Think you can ID this creature?”, includes a photo of the animal after an Elmendorf rancher shot it. The rancher believed the creature was responsible for the loss of his chickens.
Hendrix said the animal he saw was very much like the image in the Express-News, with the exception of the color. He added, “We’ve got one of them out here because I’ve seen the doggone animal.”

7th Aug 2004
Beeville Bee-Picayune

 

[Kondoru]

Does this sound like a wallaby to you or is it just my overactive imagination??

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds very like a wallaby - but still oop in Texas

 

[Anome]

It certainly sounds like a macropod of some sort. Probably a wallaby.

Another blow for world domination.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

A quadraped with shorter back legs which runs with a bit of a hop sounds like a hyena - it has an odd 'both legs through one leg of the underpants' type gait.

 

[Kondoru]

<shrugs> now `thats` an improvment upon the camel like gait description.

 

[Yithian]

A quadraped with shorter back legs which runs with a bit of a hop sounds like a hyena - it has an odd 'both legs through one leg of the underpants' type gait.[/b]

...“I had never seen anything like it,” said Hendrix. “It had long back legs and shorter front legs. It went across the road about 10 feet in front of me and laid down in the grass.”...

Ahem! read the post thoroughly Emperor.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Ahem! read the post thoroughly Emperor.

Whoops

 

[KeyserXSoze]

Update

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=317D3A73-8413-449D-A218-DEE30F924E81

Chupacabra? DNA Testing Underway
LAST UPDATE: 8/8/2004 2:03:17 AM
Posted By: Dale Blasingame

It's a story that's attracted worldwide attention. A strange animal was shot dead on a south Texas farm and no one can seem to identify it. It's prompted some to wonder if it's the famed chupacabra.

That mystery animal has most everyone asking "what is it?" But we may soon have an answer. A rancher in Elmendorf shot the hairless animal after it killed more than thirty of his chickens. He then buried it on his property. Saturday, an organization that specializes in identifying strange animals dug up the remains. Rancher Devin Macanally hopes that animal's bones will now tell the tale.

"I thought by burying it in solid sand that it would last longer," said Macanally. "But it didn't."

Biologists dug up the animal's remains for DNA testing, a process that could take up to six weeks.

"They just dug as far as they needed to get the bone samples," said Macanally. "They wanted an ear, but they realized they couldn't get one."

Some believe this mystery mammal could be the chupacabra, the blood sucking animal of popular Mexican folklore. Macanally says whether it is, he just hopes he gets to name it and that it will stop eating his chickens. He plans to take the rest of the remains to the zoo in hopes they can identify it. Other labs across the country and the world have been contacting him trying to find out what this really is.

 

[Anonymous]

S.A. Zoo Weighs-In on Chupacabra Debate

Is it a Chupacabra or not? WOAI.com is getting answers about a bizarre animal shot in Elmendorf.

Bones from a mystery animal shot by an Elmendorf rancher have been taken to an expert from the San Antonio Zoo. But can he tell what it is?

John Gramieri, the Mammal Curator at the San Antonio Zoo, doesn't think it's the Chupacabra. It's definitely unique, but he thinks it's a mix between a dog and a coyote.

Devin MacAnally shot the Elmendorph Beast after it ate dozens of his chickens. The animal has a blue-grey coloring, is almost hairless, has a short mane and large fangs.

“It's clearly a member of the dog family, a family candidate,” explains Gramieri.

Gramieri says he can't tell what type of canine, but that it could be mixed with coyote that has very weird teeth.

“For whatever reason, this animal had a very poor fusion in the front here, so it allowed that lower jaw to spread in a way that is not normal for any mammal, actually,” Gramieri told WOAI.

But what about the creature's color? A blue-grey hairless coat that's unlike any dog or coyote?

“It apparently had some very bad skin ailment,” said Gramieri. “And that skin ailment made it go bald except for the top of its body.”

So there’s no Chubacabra endorsements from the San Antonio Zoo, but MacAnally continues to believe it's something extra special. He knows its one man's opinion versus his, so he'll wait for the DNA results due back in the next few weeks to find out exactly what it is.

“I want this one to be a new species - or at least something that somebody has never seen in a cross between two different ones,” MacAnally said with a smile.

MacAnally says in the past few weeks he's gotten calls from other people claiming to have seen similar creatures around their properties. That's possible, according to the Gramieri. Gramieri believes that there are more out there.

WOAI.com

 

[Leaferne]

Found another cool account here , and it happened in Toronto, yet!

Tunnel Monster - Toronto Ontario

It was a warm summer’s day in August of 1978 when a Toronto area man had an experience with a strange creature that would forever change his life.

Ernest (he would only allow his first name to be used) was a soft-spoken 51 year old at the time of his harrowing experience. He and his wife of 19 years had been raising a litter of kittens. One of the kittens apparently disappeared and Ernest decided to search for it in the vicinity of their Parliament St. apartment. Closeby he stumbled upon the opening to a dark “cave” and crawled approx.10ft inwards. This is where he said, “I saw a living nightmare that I’ll never forget.”

Armed only with a flashlight Ernest encountered a creature of unknown origin. He described the monster as “long and thin, almost like a monkey, three ft long, large teeth, weighing maybe 30lbs with slate-grey fur.” However it was the eyes that truly stood out, “orange and red, slanted.”

Ernest spoke reluctantly with reporters as to what occurred next. The creature spoke to him. “I’ll never forget it,” he said. “It said, ‘Go away, go away,’ in a hissing voice. Then it took off down a long tunnel off to the side. I got out of there as fast as I could. I was shaking with fear.”

Ernest never approached the media with his story. He was afraid that people would think that he was “drunk” or worse “crazy” and felt that no one would ever believe him. “The (Toronto area newspaper) Sun found him after hearing about his experience from a reliable contact who worked with a relative of Ernest’s, one of the handful of people to whom he had confided the experience. He would agree to talk only if his last name was not revealed.”

“I believe Ernie saw exactly what he says he did”, said Barbara (Ernest’s wife). “He was terrified when he came back to the apartment and he doesn’t scare easily. Look, he’s been known to to have a drink in the past - like most people, and to occasionally tie one on, but he’s not a drunk and he wasn’t drinking at all that day.”

The Toronto Sun did question some of Ernest’s relatives and neighbourhood aquaintances. They found that all agreed with and supported Barabara’s evaluation of her husband.

Ernest accompanied by Sun staff returned to the location of his strange sighting in March of 1979. The cave’s entrance was located at the bottom of a narrow passageway between the building where he lived and the one next door. Together they found the corpse of a cat, which was “half-buried in the tunnel.” The sad discovery reminded Ernest of ‘strange noises, like animals in pain,” that he had heard emanating from the tunnel prior to his frightening encounter.

Ernest showed the Sun reporter exactly where he saw the strange being. He stated, “ The last I saw the creature it was heading off into the dark.” The passage seemed to drop down very quickly and go a long way back.

It was speculated that the the tunnel in fact led to the sewer system and that the entranceway beside Ernest’s apartment was “an access point used by the creature to the surface.” Safety concerns promoted Toronto’s Sewer Deptartment to thoroughly inspect the tunnel as it was feared that area children may in fact try to enter it.

Ernest’s story was very strange, however sewage employees did not ridicule or scoff at it according to the report made by The Toronto Sun at that time. One worker who was quoted in the paper stated, “People who work on the surface just don’t know what it’s like down there. It’s a whole different world. Who would have thought a few years ago that people would live in sewers, and yet that’s what they found in New York a few years back. Another was quoted as saying, “I don’t know what he (Ernest) saw down there.” He also stated, “I’ll tell you one thing. If we could get in there, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to go down alone.”

It’s is interesting to note that the description of the creature provided by Ernest and an artist’s rendering which was included in the original Toronto Sun article resemble some current reports of another strange creature - the South American Chupacabara.

To view a sketch of the creature based on an artist’s rendition which appeared with the original Toronto Sun article - Please Click Here.

Source:

The Sunday Sun - March 25th, 1979

Our personal thank you to Larry Fenwick founder of CUFORN who generously provided us with a copy of the newspaper article.

Pic attached (had to resize it so it'd upload).

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Another?

10/12/04 - Pollok

Family Finds Strange Animal at their Home


An East Texas family is trying to solve a mystery after a strange animal was shot and killed on their property.

The animal was found underneath their home in Central. After it was killed, a closer look revealed it had a deer-like body and kangaroo characteristics. A zoo veterinarian looked at the pictures and says even though it looks strange, he believes it's a dog.

Veterinarian Dr. Mike Nance says, "My professional judgment, just from seeing the skin and some of the conditions that I've seen on a domestic dog, is that this is in fact a domestic dog with a multitude of skin problems; and unfortunately, is not too uncommon than we see come into the shelters on occasion."

Dr. Nance says it appears that the animal's underbite made eating difficult, which may have caused malnutrition. He also notes the animal did have some of the same characteristics as a Mexican hairless dog.

The family that discovered the animal says even their dogs were too afraid to get near it. Dr. Nance says it will be difficult to determine, with certainty, what type of animal it is without DNA testing.

http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421275&nav=2FH5Rv7i

10/13/2004

Mystery beast killed near Pollok baffles animal experts

By LYNN WINTHROP, The Lufkin Daily News

Local animal experts are having a hard time identifying a strange looking animal killed in Angelina County on Friday — an animal that looks eerily similar to the as yet unidentified "Elmendorf Beast" killed near San Antonio earlier this year.

"What is that?" are the first words out of anyone's mouth when shown photos of the animal, according to Stacy Womack.

The animal's blue-grey skin is almost hairless and appears to be covered with mange. A closer look at the animal's jaw line reveals a serious overbite and four huge canine teeth, and a long, rat-like tail curls behind the animal's emaciated frame.

Womack — who has more than 20 years experience working at Ellen Trout Zoo and for a local veterinarian — said she's seen and handled a lot of different animals, but that she's never seen anything like this one.

"It's not a dog," she said. "I'd bet my lottery ticket on that."

The animal was shot and killed shortly before noon Friday after crawling under her mother's house on O'Quinn Road in Pollok. Womack said large dogs in the yard "went nuts" and alerted the family, but would only whine and wouldn't go under the house with the animal. Her brother shot the animal, tied a rope around it and dragged it out from under the house for a closer look, she said.

Womack was called to take a photograph of the animal, and possibly help identify it, as well. A live animal, just like the one in the picture, darted across the road in front of her car while she was driving to the scene.

When she arrived with her camera and expertise in tow, Womack said she almost couldn't believe what she was looking at.

"It was so necrotic, its tissue was just rotted," Womack said. "It had no hair, a severe overbite and its claws were entirely too long for a dog."

She said the animal's front legs were much smaller than it's hind legs, and that despite it's overall ghoulish appearance, it's extremely long canine teeth were in excellent condition. Also, despite having been shot, there was virtually no blood seeping from the animal's carcass. The animal's ear also "broke like a cookie" when it's head was held up for a photograph, she said

"It's body looked like something that has been dead for a month or so," Womack said. "Like I said, I've worked in the veterinary field for more than 20 years and I've never seen anything that bad."

The animal was male and weighed between 15 and 20 pounds, she said. The identical animal that sprinted across the road ran with it's head down and it's tail between it's legs, according to Womack, but wasn't tall enough to be a coyote or a wolf. She said the live animal is probably the dead one's mate.

"I would just like to see somebody go out there and try to trap the other one," Womack said. "Because it's in misery, too, and what if it gets into the population?"

Womack showed pictures of the animal to a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden, who "totally freaked out" and called for a department biologist, she said. The biologist told her it was likely a coyote with mange, but wasn't able to match the animal's skull shape — and overbite — with pictures of coyotes in reference books, according to Womack.

Pictures were also dropped off at the Texas Animal Health Commission, where the veterinarian was out of the office and hadn't contacted Womack as of Tuesday afternoon. She said a biologist was on the way to Pollok to collect a tissue sample of the animal, for DNA testing.

"I just want people to be aware that things like this happen," Womack said. "If it's not the mange, it's something that doesn't need to be in the environment."

C.R. Shilling, of the West Loop Animal Clinic in Lufkin said that after seeing pictures of the animal — and stressing that his determination is "pure speculation" — he believes the animal is probably a coyote. The animal likely suffers from demodex mange, he said, and possibly a secondary skin infection or even a congenital skin defect, as well.

"That's just a congenital defect," Shilling said when asked about the animal's unusual jaw configuration. "We'll even get dogs like that in here."

Shilling said that without seeing the animal itself, it's hard to make an exact determination of what the animal might be. The possibility of it being a dog/coyote mix would be "unusual, but possible," he said.

"It appears to be an extremely undernourished dog," Ellen Trout Zoo Director Gordon Henley said after being e-mailed several photos of the animal. "Wild animals don't typically wind up like that, but undernourished, neglected, domestic animals do."

After enlarging one of the photos and conferring with the zoo's veterinarian, Henley said he feels the animal's mangy, crusty skin could be a result of either neglect or living in the wild. Undernourishment or a congenital deformity could have caused the animal's gross overbite, he said.

"I think what we've got here is a poor, suffering, undernourished and possibly abused canid," Henley said. "Possibly a coyote, but more likely a dog."

WOAI-TV in San Antonio has aired several stories on the so-called "Elmendorf Beast" since a nearby rancher shot and killed one earlier this year. The animal depicted on the station's Web site, at http://www.woai.com, looks eerily similar to the one discovered in Pollok.

The rancher from Elmendorf, located southeast of San Antonio, killed the animal after 35 of his chickens disappeared in one day. The animal was also almost hairless, with blue-grey coloring and four large "fangs." The station reported that tissue from the animal has been sent for DNA testing, and that it will be several more weeks before the tests are completed.

Speculation in the area as to what type of the animal the rancher killed has varied from simple to mystical. Some say it's a wild Mexican hairless dog, and other than the skin condition and jaw, pictures of the breed do bear a resemblance. Others believe it's the mythical chupacabra — or "goat sucker" — an animal Mexican folklorists say stalks rural areas killing livestock.

One area hunting guide even believed the animal might be a muntjac, a small antelope-type animal imported into the state by ranchers, according to the station's online reports. Muntjac are herbivores, but do have upper canine teeth that are elongated into "tusks" that curve outward from the lips. Muntjac are also called "barking deer" for a sound they'll emit to warn others of predators.

Like most deer, however, the Muntjac have split hoofs instead of paws, and certainly don't have long, rat-like tails.

A San Antonio Zoo mammal expert told WOAI-TV the animal is clearly a member of the canine family, and could possibly be a mix between a dog and a coyote. The expert also said the animal was clearly suffering from some sort of skin ailment, and may also have a congenital deformity of some sort.

Sightings of similar animals have been reported across the country, from California to Maryland.

link

[edit: URL is breaking trying again.]

 

[sunspot8]

Why the hell did they have to go and shoot it for They could have tried to set a trap and catch it alive.

 

[naitaka]

“It's clearly a member of the dog family, a family candidate,” explains Gramieri.

I presume what he actually said to the reporter was "family Canidae".

 

[Kondoru]

if it was in that bad a condition then its probably a mercy they shot it.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

My what big teeth you have grandma

I'm unsure if we have had any pictures of this specific one before but check out this report with lots of them:

http://woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=EBC8FC7B-ED5D-46A5-8DA4-3C6F6C31975E

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Expert says mystery beast is a 'mangey coyote'

By JOHNNY JOHNSON, The Daily Sentinel

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - As it turns out, volatile chemicals from a top secret experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia were probably not responsible for producing some kind of mutant killer deer-dog that is running around deep East Texas sucking the blood from goats.

Anyone who logs onto the Internet and runs a Google Image search for "Coyote" and "mange" may see some animals that look surprisingly like the strange looking "Pollok Mystery Beast" killed Friday in Angelina County.

But SFA forestry professor and deer expert Dr. James Kroll didn't need the World Wide Web to help him identify the creature - he sees them fairly regularly.

"That thing's a mange coyote," Kroll said. "I've been seeing a lot of them lately. We've even photographed some."

When a coyote loses all its hair it will typically end up with scabs all over its body and its skin turns a bluish color, which according to Kroll is why some locals and especially old-timers refer to "mange" as "the blues."

"It's perplexing to me that most people did not know it," Kroll said. "People were calling me asking 'Have you seen that thing that's a cross between a kangaroo and a rat?' I don't know what to say - people love that kind of stuff."

On Thursday, The Daily Sentinel received several calls of "mystery beast" sightings throughout Nacogdoches and Shelby counties.

"Periodically we get a bad case of mange that runs through them pretty badly and knocks the population down," he said. "I'm sorry it's not something more exotic than that, but that's all there is to it. I've seen them dozens of times."

Kroll also said sightings of similar-looking animals could happen all over the state and even the nation, as coyotes can be found just about anywhere in America.

As for the so-called experts who have been puzzled by the origins of the beast, Kroll said he can't help but question their titles.

"I hope they are not really 'experts' who have anything to do with wildlife," he said. "Because if they are, I'm worried."

link

 

[Kondoru]

"I hope they are not really 'experts' who have anything to do with wildlife," he said. "Because if they are, I'm worried."

<nods>



http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/hairlessbreeds.htm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Chupacabras in the fog

A third "chupabara"? But this oens hairy!! So if the previous one was a mangey coyote and this one is hairy does that mean its just a coyote?

Another Chupacabra in East Texas?

LAST UPDATE: 10/25/2004 7:24:44 PM
Posted By: Dale Blasingame


Is it a chupacabra? Another Texan claims he may have seen one.

Michael Rigsby from Nacogdoches sent News 4 WOAI these pictures, but he isn't sure what this animal is. It's tough to see through the fog, but the animal has a bushy tail. Rigsby tells News 4 the animal had canine-like features, but it doesn't look like a dog.

Comparing the animal to the beast found in Elmendorf, the Elmendorf version was hairless. The animal Rigsby found was hairy.

Another man in east Texas reported seeing a chupacabra-type animal near Lufkin a few weeks ago.

link

At which point will people just give up and stop reporting hese kinds of things? Its fun for Forteans but the 'mystery' must be going out of it for ordinary folk.

What interests me is that there hasn't been an outbreak of mass hysteria with weird sightings and goat sucking.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Odd creature, killed in East Texas, identified

By KARI KRAMER | East Texas Edition

Oct. 28, 2004 - An odd creature found in Pollack earlier this month has now been identified.

The animal was shot after running under a house in the Angelina County town of Pollack. According to the East Texas paper that originally covered the story, the couple who owned the house called their daughter, Stacy Womack, to identify the animal. Womack, who has been said to have some veterinarian experience, went to take pictures of the fatally-wounded animal.

The animal was described as having an almost blue-like skin, a noticeable overbite, poorly structured hind legs that are longer than the front legs, thick claw-like nails, and as having virtually no hair on its body. The bone structure was similar to that of a dog and several reports indicated the weight to be around 20 pounds.

This creature was believed by many in local reports to be the same type of "beast" killed earlier this year near San Antonio.

Immediate reports indicated the animal could be a coyote or even some type of mythical animal.

Several super-natural oriented websites are now featuring pictures and links to information about the creature. Local agencies have been flooded with reports of "mystery beast" sightings.

Without seeing pictures, some veterinarians assumed the animal was a coyote or dog with mange. Others who were not identified by name said the animal could be a Mexican chupacabra, an animal believed to roam rural lands eating livestock. One person, identified only as "one area hunting guide," believed the animal could be a muntjac, a deer-like animal. Unlike the animal found in Pollack, the muntjac has split-hooves and is an herbivore.

Womack was quoted in the East Texas paper as saying, "It's not a dog, I'd bet my lottery ticket on that."

According to several experts, the animal is of the Canidae family (the same as any household or wild dog).

"All wildlife experts seem to believe it's a coyote with mange," said Capt. Donnie Puckett of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD).

Puckett also indicated the earlier stories were exaggerated when they quoted that one game warden was "totally freaked out."

"We had some real interesting topics," said Cary Sims, the Texas Cooperative Extension agent of agriculture in Angelina County. "It was just blown out of proportion."

Dr. James Wright of the Texas Department State Health Services Zoonosis Control Division in Tyler explained the grotesque features of the coyote.

"The animal was suffering from poor nutrition. It did not run off those nails like a healthy animal would. I've seen dogs with nails that long," said Wright, who added that the extraordinary overbite was probably the result of a genetic malformation.

The lack of hair on the animal's body has been repeatedly accredited to mange. Wright explained that mange is a condition caused by mites. According to Wright, there are two types of mange that the coyote could possibly have had: Sarcoptic and Demodectic.

Sarcoptic mange is caused by the Sarcoptes scabei mite. The condition is most commonly known as scabies. The female mite burrows under the skin and moves about laying eggs. When the eggs hatch they move to the surface of the skin for breeding, the prescence of the mites and their eggs will cause skin irritation that will provoke the animal to scratch vigorously. This type of mite can be spread to other animals and humans, but is treatable.

Demodectic mange is caused by the Demodex canis mite. This mite is spread only from mothers to their puppies in the first stages of life. Once the animal ages, it cannot contract the demodex mites. These mites burrow deep into the hair follicle and hair will not grow, or will fall out. Severe itching will not occur from demodex mite exposure. All dogs are believed to have a level of demodex mites in their skin, but most never develop Demodectic mange. Some animals may be genetically predisposed for the condition according to Wright, or may possess an immune system deffiencey that allows the mites to flourish.

Wright believed that because the condition was so severe, the coyote most likely had Demodectic mange, because the animal's skin was not scratched away.

As it turns out, the commotion surrounding the mystery beast can now be accredited to a sickly coyote.

"The real story here is how excited people got over a coyote with mange," said Dr. Wright.

http://www.countryworldnews.com/Editorial/ETX/2004/et102804Creature.htm

 

[PeniG]

Alas, that "hairy chupacabras" looks exactly like an ordinary canid to me. This dog won't hunt.

As for outbreaks of mass hysteria - I don't think you can have two outbreaks, and it's early voting this week. Any drained goats would have been blamed on the party the rancher didn't support, I expect.

 

[Kondoru]

Rigsby tells News 4 the animal had canine-like features, but it doesn't look like a dog.

Ummm...ummm...

<when she scratches her head, its not because of mange.>

 

[Anonymous]

Re the Pollack creature. I wouldn't want to take issue with the mangy coyote ID, but a little science wouldn't go amiss here.

How has it been identified?

We're told "All wildlife experts seem to believe it's a coyote with mange". That isn't scientific identification - it's opinion.

Dr James Wright:
"added that the extraordinary overbite was probably the result of a genetic malformation."

That's opinion too.

"According to Wright, there are two types of mange that the coyote could possibly have had: Sarcoptic and Demodectic."

They have the remains. Checking which kind of mange the animal had is not exactly rocket science.

So, yet again, an unusual animal is killed in one of the most advanced scientific countries in the world, causing much public interest. But rather than scientific method, identification is based on opinion and guesswork.

I think it's a mangy coyote too. And I think the latest film is someone jumping on the bandwagon. But that's my opinion, and I could be wrong. That is why we have science.

What if this is an unknown species? Or if a new disease is emerging in canids in the USA? As things stand we're no closer to knowing than we would have been in the Dark Ages, because we're using the same methods (opinion and guesswork) that would have been available then.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Chupacabra Discoverers United

LAST UPDATE: 11/13/2004 10:11:22 AM
Posted By: CyberBob

Martha Trevino
News 4 WOAI

It's a relationship that's as wild as the creatures that brought them together. What exactly are these creatures? A dog? A wolf? The chupacabra? WOAI brings together an Elmendorf rancher and an East Texas animal lover, so they can share their fascinating finds.

Whatever they are, they're turning up more and more these days. While we can merely speculate, two people have firsthand knowledge of the critters.

Elmendorf rancher Devin MacNally started this chupacabra phenomenon months ago when he shot a mysterious animal on his property. East Texas animal lover Stacy Womack made another mysterious discovery under her house.

News 4 WOAI took Devin to Lufkin to meet Stacy, so the two could compare notes. It wasn't long before the two set to swapping stories.

“See his didn't have quite the overbite, but it's so much the same,” said Stacy as the two compared notes.

“The ears are always what got me anyway,” replied Devin. “But see how much healthier mine is? It was pregnant.”

Another peculiar coincidence...

“It only took a shot to kill mine, but it didn't make a noise,” explained Devin. “It didn't move. It didn't do nothing. So I thought that it was like a possum.”

Stacey says almost exactly the same thing occurred with her mysterious beast.

Stacy spent twenty years working with a veterinarian and as a zookeeper for five years, so some of her expertise came in handy on this visit.

She debunked the mange theory.

“This was not a secondary infection,” she pointed out as she examined the pictures. “This was scaly skin. There was no secondary infection in this animal caused by mange.”

“That's exactly what I said,” said Devin. “But somebody looked at it last week and said it's just a mangy coyote.”

While Stacy has ruled out what she found as being a dog or a coyote, she’s still not sure what it is.

The first round of DNA tests on the Elmendorf beast came back inconclusive because the animal had been dead for too long. Stacy’s hoping that new DNA tests will help explain the animal's origin.

Both Stacy and Devin have had some interesting ideas on the subject.

“I don't think it's an alien, but I wonder about that spaceship [Space Shuttle Columbia] that blew up over here. Something might have come out of it, and caused some type of genetic problem,” Stacy theorized.

“Decontamination due to radiation or extreme heat,” said Devin.

Although we didn't find out exactly what this mysterious creature is, at least we know we haven't seen the last of them yet. Both Stacy and Devin agree that there has to be more.

They also want to prove to the small town of Lufkin that Stacy didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

“We're going to get a trap and see if we get it caught,” she said.

We'll let you know what happens.

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[amester]

chupacabra in New Mexico?

I saw this on last evening's news- tonight, the mystery is supposed to be solved

http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=s ... 7&cat=HOME


Strange corpse has some muttering the word ‘chupacabra’



Last Update: 02/10/2005 11:15:05 PM
By: Reed Upton
Video

Some New Mexicans say it’s the weirdest thing they’ve ever seen: a creature – and that’s the best word to describe it – found on Albuquerque’s West Mesa.

To some, it’s simply intriguing. To others, it’s downright scary. The creature belongs to Robert Wheeler.

“It was found out on the West Mesa,” says Wheeler. ”A friend of mine was out there shooting and kicked it out of the dirt.”

“It looks like a gargoyle” said Wheeler’s friend Steve Garcia. “It has these sponge-like lips.”

Garcia and Wheeler say Hispanics seem most affected by the creature – and what it might be.

“[To people of] Spanish heritage, it’s the chupacabra,” says Wheeler. “The goat sucker is what they call it.”

A Google search will reveal many images of what people imagine the mythical chubacabra ranging from a demented Grinch-like beast to something more closely resembling the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Wheeler delivered the creature to a New Mexico Game and Fish office where Eyewitness News 4 shot video of it – and recorded responses from people entering the office on regular business only to see the dried corpse. They weren’t sure what to make of it.

“Any guess as to what it could be,” Eyewitness News 4’s Tom Joles asked one of the drop-ins.

“Something prehistoric, I assume,” answered the viewer.

After doing some research, Eyewitness News 4 has concluded that the creature probably lived in the ocean at one time and probably isn’t either a chupacabra or an alien. Eyewitness News 4 at 10:00 on Friday will explore what the creature may have been.


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[Anonymous]

That's a dried ray or skate, definitely not a chupacabra... do a search for "Jenny Haniver" (sp?)...