Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Chupacabra: Hit or Myth?

A rancher in South Texas claims that she captured one of the legendary chupacabras and has the evidence in her freezer.
A chupacabra is a mix of a hairless dog, a rat and a fox. For decades, the hybrid beast that sucks the blood out of livestock has been viewed by many with skepticism. But, now that farmers and ranchers are capturing these strange creatures right and left, people are starting to believe.
Knowing that these beasts are out there gives renewed hope to people who believe in Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster. But, until they capture one of those, I am going to continue believing that they’re myths.
But, the chupacabra is real and the proof is accumulating with every one that is captured. Maybe one day they’ll find one alive and be able to learn about its behavior and habits.
Here in the report that appeared recently on http://www.aol.com/:
Phyllis Canion says that the chupacabra has been lurking around her ranch for years.
She said it first snatched cats, then chickens right through a wire cage.
“[It] opened it reached in pulled the chicken head out, sucked all the blood out, left the chicken in the cage,” she said.
Canion says two dozen chickens were sucked dry. The meat, she says, was left on the bone.
Neighbors speculate the blue-colored animal that was doing all that damage was a chupacabra. The name is translated from Spanish and means goat-sucker because the creature sucks the blood of livestock.
Canion says not one, but three chupacabras were spotted outside the town in recent days. All of them, she says, were blue-skinned, had no hair and had strange teeth.
Although Canion and her neighbors feel she captured a chupacabra, others -- like State Mammalogist John Young -- say she captured a grey fox.
“When mange goes untreated it causes this type of reaction. they start to itch, lose all their hair, blue grey coloration. and the animal usually dies from it,” he said.
It wasn’t mange, but a car that killed the creature that Canion captured.
“There have been so many stories for so long. The chupacabra is a mythical thing and maybe it is, but this is something…a cross between something. What? I don’t know, I’d love to find out,” she said.
So, KENS-TV took samples of the creature and sent it off for DNA testing.
Those results are due.
Meanwhile, the creature’s head, which is in Canion’s freezer, will go on her home’s wall.
“This one hands down will draw the most attention. Because they’re gonna say you got zebras, you got this, you got that, what is this thing here? That’s what we call the South Texas taz devil," she said.