Publisher’s Note: I found this article in my Google Alerts and thought i would invite you to read it. it was published online at the beaumontenterprise.com by Thomas Taschinger. It concerns two of my favorite topics< chupacabras and Bigfoot. Enjoy Dirk
By Thomas Taschinger
It was a strange week in Texas for cryptozoology. Which is, of course, the study of animals that have not been acknowledged by mainstream science – or simply don’t exist.
On the chupacabra front, for one brief shining moment, we had the mother lode – an actual live specimen. A woman in Ratcliffe, Texas, named Jackie Stock trapped the critter and was gleefully showing it off to news crews. A short video of it is all over the internet.
A chupacabra is, of course, a mythical dog-like creature said to roam the Southwest at night like a ghoulish fiend. The name in Spanish translates to “goat sucker” because of its rumored practice of sucking goat’s blood like a vampire when the sun goes down. Yikes!
At first glance the Ratcliffe specimen looked promising. It was about the size of a small dog, dark gray in color and hairless – only it didn’t resemble any known dog breed. It had a long, pointed snout and claws it could grasp with. For a few days, some folks believed that maybe a new species had been discovered in North America after all.
Alas, it was too good to be true. The Ratcliffe chupacabra was determined to be nothing more than a mangy raccoon. A game warden instructed Mrs. Stock to either release the animal or euthanize it. Stock then left a voice mail for the warden stating that the poor beast had been put to sleep.
To throw even more cold water on the tale, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department plans no further investigation. Why? Because, as a spokesman said, “Our agency does not believe chupacabras exist anywhere but in the imaginations of some.” Ouch.
The quest for Bigfoot was even more disappointing. A fellow named Rick Dyer who claims to be a Bigfoot tracker admitted that the 8-foot tall body of a dead Bigfoot he exhibited in San Antonio last month (for a small fee, of course) was, well, fake.
“From this moment on, I will speak the truth! No more lies, tall tales or wild goose chases to mess with the haters!” Dyer said on his Facebook account, which has since been deleted. “I never treated anyone bad, I’m a joker, I play around, that’s just me.”
Gee, thanks, Rick. You ought to get some kind of award for that weasely confession.
Article continues here: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/opinions/columns/article/THOMAS-TASCHINGER-Chupacabra-Bigfoot-get-shot-5382939.php