Hola Mi Amigos Mi Yamo Es, El Chupacabra!

  The world of the strange and unusual is a weird, wild and wacky place and no area of research does it quite like Cryptozoology.  Cryptozoology as some of you know is the science, or psuedo-science depending on your point of view, of tracking down, discovering and classifying unknown or previously undiscovered species of animals.  Although mainstream science views cryptozoology as a crank science the brave researchers who indulge in this discipline have made some amazing discoveries.  Off the coast of Madagascar the Coelacanth, a large fish that was thought to have become extinct in the age of the dinosaurs, was discovered in a fisherman’s net in 1938.  The Okapi, a kind of gazelle which again was thought to have been extinct was discovered living out a quiet existence in the forest’s of southeast Asia during the 1990s so this “Crank” science is not without it’s victories.

  Mainstream science would have us all believe that all species of animal has been discovered and nothing else is left.  Mainstream science it would appear is either incapable or unwilling to acknowledge the fact that despite all the eyewitness accounts that a large hairy man-like beast resides in the forests and mountainous regions of the world or that something strange and fishy is swimming around in many large bodies of water the world over.  To them, eyewitness accounts do not cut it they desire a captured or dead specimen to put under a microscope and study.  However as I have oftentimes said, even if the ghost of bigfoot steps off a UFO and declares to the world, “We come in peace.”  The mainstream scientific community would still say, “Hey, where’s the zipper?”

  One such creature that has reached virtual rock star status in the world of cryptozoology and has captured the imagination of millions is the elusive and sinister, El Chupacabras, the goat sucker.  Since the early to mid 1990s there have been dozens of reports mostly from Latin American countries, of farmers who have wild claims of a strange and grotesque beast that comes under the darkness of night and murders their livestock in a most interesting fashion.  These farmers claim that when the sun rises and the workday begins they are met with the horror of discovering the broken bodies of their livestock without a drop of blood in their bodies.  They state that upon inspection of their property they find was appears to be two puncture wounds either in the neck or chest area and their bodies have been sucked dry of that vital fluid that keeps us all alive, blood.

  For the most part we are all familiar with the legend of the vampire, a loathsome satanic creature that sleeps by day in a coffin and has a love of evening clothes, virgins and the taste of blood.  In the early 1990s in the small farming village of Moca, Puerto Rico a spate of killings had everyone hiding behind locked doors and clutching crucifixes because, El Vampiro was in their midst and killing all their livestock and their dogs and cats.  “El Vampiro De Moca” as it was called defied any attempts at being captured and filled the populace with such dread that many left the village and today Moca is thought of as being a place of demons and evil spirits.

  A few years later another flap of livestock killings began in Puerto Rico leaving many to believe that, El Vampiro had made a comeback.  However this time many would claim to have witnessed the depredations of this vampiric creature and they would all agree it looked nothing like the Transylvanian gent that we all love to hate.  In 1995, one farmer went on record as saying that one late night he was awakened by the sound of his animals screaming out in the yard as well as the barn.  Believing that some thief was attempting to steal his prized possessions the farmer grabbed his rifle and ran outside to deal with the thief, however what he witnessed was no ordinary thief and the sight made his blood run cold.  The farmer claimed that he witnessed a large scaly creature approximately the size of a kangaroo holding one of his goats it’s clawed grasp and it had it’s large fangs buried deep in the goat’s neck.  The farmer further went on to say that the horrific creature had long spikes that ran from it’s head down it’s back to the tip of it’s tail.  When the farmer regained his composure and his courage he took aim at the creature which fixed it’s large glowing red eyes on the farmer.  The creature hissed and then flew away leaving the farmer with dead livestock and a fresh duece in his drawers.

  It is difficult to get a handle on what the sinister El Chupacabra is.  Those who have had the displeasure of witnessing the ugly beast and what it does give varying descriptions of it’s appearance.  Some of the witnesses claim that the creature they witnessed looked like everything from some huge mutant monkey or some kind of giant bat due to the fact that the creature, after making it’s kill, flies away.  However all the witnesses agree on two main components they creature has large, hypnotic  glowing red eyes and that the creature is very very real.

  The United States is blessed, and unfortunately some would disagree, with a large immigrant population.  These folks when they come to out shores enrich us with their culture, beliefs and most impotantly their legends.  It would appear that in towns and cities all over the United States with large Latino communities, El Chupacabra has made it’s presence known with a vengence.  In 2004 in San Antonio, Texas a rancher was discovering that many of his chickens and other small animals were being attacked and drained of their blood as he and his wife slept at night.  After a week of this the farmer had had enough and decided to do something about it before every last animal on his ranch was drained of it’s blood.  One night the farmer his inside his truck rifle in hand and waited for the mystery attacker to make an appearance, and he would not have to wait long.  The rancher watched as a large hairless dog snuck onto his farm and began mauling one of his chickens.  The brave farmer took aim and blew the whatits away with extreme prejudice. 

  The farmer took a look at his prize and had no idea what the hell he had on his hands, he had no idea what exactly this creature was.  The rancher contacted the local animal shelter and reported his kill a representative arrived in the morning and took a look at the creature.  The rep was just as mystified as the farmer so they had the remains shipped off to the University of California in the hopes that somebody could tell them what they had.  A few later a researcher from U of C contacted the farmer and said, hey congrats you killed a coyote with acute mange.  Case closed. But not quite.

  A year later another rancher in Coleman, Texas shot and killed a creature that was killing his livestock.  The creature appeared to be some kind of crossbreed between a kangaroo and a dog.  The rancher sent the remains away to be analyzed.  The rancher never learned what he had killed.  In 2005 it would appear that the Chupa decided to leave the hot humid climates of the Southern U S and the Latin American countries and take up residence in the cold snowy landscape of northern Russia.  Several farmers reported that their livestock were being attacked and bled dry by some mystery creature whose calling card was cunning, stealth and two puncture wounds in the necks of their animals.  El Chupacabras fears not the cold.

  With a relative lack of a specimen to study mainstream science states that whatever is killing the animals would appear to be the run of the mill predator however many remain unconvinced.  Those who have witnessed El Chupacabra will say emphatically this is not the normal predator.  So what is it, if it is real?  Cryptozoologists claim that the creature may be a previously undiscovered species of giant vampire bat while those in the UFO community believe that the Chupa is some kind of extraterrestrial that thirsts for blood and stops just short of turning humans into a meal since no human has ever been attacked and sucked dry by this most elusive of cryptid.  I guess until we have a body to dissect and study we will never know what manner of creature El Chupacabras is.