The Legend of El Chupacabra

This is a chupacabra.

This is not.

Taken 2010 in Southern Alabama

This is a wild dog, coyote, or perhaps a fox with the mange or some other disease that effects it’s skin and appearance. If I was going to try and say it was anything else, I would say Zombie Dog, but calling all these sightings around the country Chupacabras has became a trend.

Today’s news feeds are filled with claims of chupacabra sightings, evidence, and sometimes even bodies here in the United States. The evidence, photos or video, always depicts a dog-like creature.  The snout may be a little long, it may not have any fur, and there are other differences that set them apart from the average family Fido.  

What bothers us here on Lost Creek is that these critters look NOTHING like the creature that was originally spotted in Puerto Rico in 1995 and given the name ‘Chupacabra.’ When this, perhaps modern-mythical, beast immigrated from the Caribbean through Mexico and Central America to emerge in the US, it apparently went through a major change in appearance.  

The genesis of Chupacabra lore can be traced to Puerto Rico in 1995.  Descriptions of the creature said it stood three to four feet tall and walked upright on two legs.  It was lizard-like, with grayish skin and a row of sharp quills running down its back.  Sometimes descriptions included a forked tongue, fangs,  glowing red eyes, and leathery, bat-like wings.  It's feet had three claws.

These early descriptions of chupacabras often said that they hopped, much like a kangaroo.  Some reports described some kangaroo-like features.  This reminded me of the time when a couple friends and myself went to a concert in Cleveland.  On the way home we took turns driving and napping.  While I was riding shotgun on the interstate somewhere in Ohio, we drove past what appeared to have been a dead kangaroo on the side of the road.  When my friend in the backseat woke up and we told him about what we saw he insisted we had indulged in certain chemicals and left him out.  I assure you, that was not the case.  It wasn’t until I dug into the chupacabra descriptions that I recalled the kangaroo-looking critter on the interstate.  That may have been my first run-in with El Chupacabra…more on that later.

Backing up further in time to the 1975s, we found reports of a creature called ‘El Vampiro de Moca,’ that was blamed for the death of livestock in the small Puerto Rican town of Moca.  A rash of UFO sightings broke out on the island.  Farm animals, initially suspected to have been killed by a Satanic cult, were found bled dry through small circular incisions.  No one ever claimed to see the Moca Vampire, and it came to be believed that the slayings were the result of illegally-imported crocodiles.

Things seemed to die down.  Now skip forward to 1995.  The Puerto Rican towns of Orocovis and Morovis began seeing more dead animals turning up.  The bodies of goats, chickens, and other animals appeared to have been exsanguinated through a puncture wound.  Canovanas seemed to be the center of the new epidemic with over 150 reports of dead animals.  That August Madeline Tolentino reported seeing the creature in broad daylight.  The sketch below was made based on Tolentino’s description and published in local newspapers:

Prominent and described in detail by a witness described the quills in detail.  An interesting theory is that the 'quills' described are actually its wings folded on its back. A story told my a former Navy Seal talks about seeing a group of creatures that at first resembled chimps killing another animal for food.  Then they noticed spikes that ran down their spine that would stand up when they became agitated.  They filmed the entire episode. The film according to the Seal is three minutes long and classified.  ^[2]

 

Photo from Texas. Kangaroo-like appearance?

By the early 2000s chupacabra sightings had spread into the US, starting in Texas and continuing throughout the country.  Ranchers would find their animals dead, spot a predator they believed responsible, call it a chupacabra, and sometimes catch it on film or even kill it.  However, when DNA testing has been done on such subjects, it almost always comes back as a coyote with the mange or hybrid  dog or coyote that has bred with other animals.  

Unidentified animals labeled as chupacabras have been spotted all over the country, as far north as Maine.  Kentucky is no exception, as the following video shows:

Some believe the chupacabra is some previously unknown creature.  Others believe it is related to the UFO sightings and is some kind of alien creature.  Lesser known is the theory that the chupacabra is the creation of a genetic research lab hidden in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest.   El Yunque is a mountain range on the eastern part of the island.  Proponents of this theory believe the creature escaped from the lab during a particularly bad storm in the early 90s.  The US has admitted to having labs and testing chemicals in Puerto Rico as part of Project 112.  Anthrax and Agent Orange are among the toxic chemicals that were researched and sometimes sprayed for testing on the island.  Reports of other strange creatures have came from the Yunque area: hairy bigfoot-like bipeds, flying creatures resembling Velociraptors, a colony of black panthers, and a monkey-like creature that uses wings to fly ^(1).

Trail cam photo showing a creature with wings

 

Chupacabra in a tree?

Is the chupacabra an example of an urban legend, a tale told again and again, evolving over time? Is it some alien or genetically altered creature?  Rational explanations somewhere?  The only thing we’re sure of is that the pictures of dead dogs and coyotes that keep surfacing have absolutely nothing to do with the original creature described in Puerto Rico.  The farm animals they have been blamed for killing had lost very little of their blood. When these mangy dogs start showing up with a row of quills down their backs and walking around on two legs, we’ll start to take notice. We’re very disappointed that chupacabra has became a blanket term for any unknown or immediately identifiable animals. As much as we'd love to see at least questionable if not verifiable pictures of something that sounds more like the Puerto Rico cryptid , we hate every (fellow) redneck that see's a poor coyote suffering from a disease and emails the local news station video of it.

However, if the definition of the term is changing, to cover any strange beast, particularly crazed, diseased, possibly evil animals like coyotes and Foxes, then perhaps we should get the Enquirer on the line, because we’ve encountered one such beast first hand and it lives right up the road here in Letcher County.  Interestingly, it has been linked to local Sasquatch sightings.  But that’s another story all together. 

Related Links:

chupacabrasightings.com - all the photos of Americanized dog-like chupacabras you could ever want to look at

Article from HuffPost on Feb '14 sightings in Texas

Timeline of famous sightings

[1] http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2011/03/an-island-of-monsters/
[2] http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2013/09/gargoyle-chupacabra-paradigm.html

This goes at the end because we wrestled over whether to include it or not.  Images of sick animals are horrible.  We love all critters, the regular and paranormal ones.  But we posted pics of people's flesh eatern off and thieir rotting limbs with the krokodil stories in the hopes that educated people will far better.  Here are pics for comparison of actual known animals:

Coyote with mange

Another coyote with mange

Considering all the different breeds of dogs not much of a stretch from this one with mange

 Project Retribution

Orbs and Energy

When it comes to evidence of the supernatural orb pics are probably the most common, but also the most often misidentified.  Photos of purported orbs are often just dust, bugs, or drops of moisture in the air that are out of focus.  However, there are plenty of orb shots that can't be debunked as such. 

We've posted pics from a local church before.  There's a lot of energy in that place, and it has been theorized that the orbs that show up are everything from positive energy manifesting to actual angels.  

We got to looking at pictures taken at a local community center that used to be an old school.  The building is said to be haunted, and I have seen things there out of the corner of my eye that I couldn't explain.  There's a bluegrass show there every Friday night, and all kinds of orbs show up there too.  This has led us to conclude that there's some connection between energy and these orbs.  When the bands are picking and the audience is dancing and enjoying themselves, orbs show up in a lot of photos.  

Submitted for your approval are just a small fraction of pics we've collected from the community center, taken by Ma Gwen along with some new shots from the church courtesy of my buddy Sue Bunyon. Enjoy!

 

That's one heck of a bass player right there! (my Dad)

My cousin cuttin a rug and stirring up orbs

There's that awesome bass player again

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Zoomed in and cropped from above pic...wings?

  

Thought there was a desk lamp behind his arm...was told there wasn't

Christmas play

 

Faces were blurred to protect the innocent.....and the guilty.

Paul Walker Death Hoax Hoax

Social media sites lit up yesterday after reports of actor Paul Walker's death spread, fueled by hashtags like #RIPPaulWalker.  Walker's star rose to fame after he appeared on the radar in "Varsity Blues" and went on to star in the Fast and Furious franchise.  In what is perhaps the most ironic celebrity death to date Walker, who reprised his role as street racing undercover cop Brian O'Conner most recently in Fast & Furious 6 this year, was killed yesterday in a fiery car crash following a charity event for his organization, Reach Out World Wide, to benefit victims of the recent typhoon in the Philippines.

What drew the attention of Medicine Show staff to Walker's death is the controversy surrounding a death hoax involving the actor that his agent had officially responded to just hours before Walker actually passed away.  On the eve of his actual death, Walker became the latest celebrity to fall victim to the strange trend of death hoaxes.  Early Saturday his representative made a statement responding to the faux news: "He joins the long list of celebrities who have been victimized by this hoax. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the internet."

Reports concerning Walker's mortality started coming in immediately following the actual accident, which occurred in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles.  Social media became mass confusion as fans posted RIP comments, while others held fast to the hoax story.  Then to further complicate matters parody news site MassMedia.net published an article stating that reports of Walker's death in the crash were part of another hoax.  While fans searched for answers, a statement was posted to Walker's Facebook page confirming his passing.

While an extra twist or two and intervening fate make Walker's death/death hoax story unique, he is indeed only the latest in a long line of celebrities to have been erroneously reported as having died. In fact, it seems that you haven't made it in show business until a fake report of your death have made the rounds.  

Celebrity death hoaxes are not a new phenomena.  In 1945 following the death of Franklin Roosevelt, hoax reports of Charlie Chaplin and Frank Sinatra made the rounds before dying out (pun intended).  Death hoaxes are reported more frequently when a genuine celebrity death occurs.  Several celebs fell victim to the hoax following the 2009 death of Michael Jackson, which coincided with Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon's deaths as well. During this time it was repeatedly reported that actor Harrison Ford had died aboard a yacht off the coast of San Tropez.

Jackie Chan points to the newspaper date to prove his mortality

The MassMedia website has a sort of template to publish fake news stories.  One ready-made article waiting for a name to be filled into blanks describes a star falling off a cliff to their death while on location in New Zealand. Users then generate a faux article with a "Global Associated News" headline. In recent years Jackie Chan, Tom Hanks, Russel Crowe, Tony Danza, Jeff Goldblum, John Cena, Natalie Portman, and Jerry Springer have all fell victim to the cliff death template article.  Fans are shocked when they see Facebook posts and tweets saying their favorite celebrities have passed away.  The anonymity of the internet allows these not-so-funny jokes to carry on with no one being held responsible for them.The ability of a Twitter user to retweet something they see with one click, without verifying the truth of such claims, fuels the spread of such stories.

Another popular fake way for celebrities to go is in a snowboarding accident, thanks to the same fake article template site.  Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Charlie Sheen, Avril Lavigne, and Owen Wilson have all watched as stories of their deaths after colliding with a tree while snowboarding in Switzerland were circulated.

Sir Paul McCartney has watched stories of his passing spread not once, but twice, on a large scale.  In 1966, at the height of the Beatles' popularity, rumors began circulating that Paul had been killed in a car accident and replaced by a lookalike to keep record sales going.  Last March he saw "Paul is dead Again" become a trending topic on Twitter, again falsely spreading the rumor that he had died.

When stories of her death began circulating in 2011, Joan Rivers responded by releasing the following statement:  "I don't know where this came from.  I did very well performing on stage this weekend in Ottowa and I didn't even bomb.  I think the story came from Betty While - that bitch."  While Rivers made a joke out of the story, the folks here on Lost Creek don't approve of the jab at good ol' Betty White. 76 year-old Morgan Freeman also fell victim to the hoax recently when rumors spread that he had passed away peacefully at his home. Freeman's faux-death was reported on CNN.

In December of 2011 rumors spread that Jon Bon Jovi had fallen into a coma, and died after suffering caridac arrest.  Bon Jovi posted the following photo to assure fans he was alive and well:

Plane crashes are a favored means of death among death hoax stories.  Celine Dion, George Clooney, and Jim Carrey have battled such news .  Car accidents are another favorite, previously falsely alleged to have killed Emma Watson, Johnny Depp, and Brittney Spears. 

But just because there's existing fill-in-the-blank templates available doesn't mean some gossip mongers aren't creative with the false stories they attempt to spread.  An original story lends their efforts some credibility.  In 2010 rapper Eminem was, for a short while, reported to have died after being stabbed multiple times in New York City.  This story was accompanied by a photo of a man's back with stab wounds, but no identifiable features, such as his face.  

In 2007 it was reported that while incarcerated, heiress Paris Hilton was shanked to death in jail.  Twilight star Taylor Lautner fell victim to the celebrity death hoax phenomena in 2010, when it was reported he died after being drugged by strippers.  The same year the story of actor Matt Damon's body being found in the dessert outside San Diego was widely circulated. Following her infamous performance at the VMAs a story spread that Miley Cyrus had killed herself, leaving behind a video message to her fans. 

 

While several celebrities have witnessed their alleged deaths reported on more than one occasion, it seems that Bill Cosby is the most frequent victim of the death hoax.  Most recently Cosby didn't die in August, when a Facebook group called "R.I.P. Bill Cosby" had over 300,000 likes overnight.  In 2010 he was reported dead on at least four occasions. Cosby responded to the August incident by voicing his frustration at having his friends and family repeatedly subjected to the shocking lies.

Paul Walker was filming Fast and Furious 7 at the time of his death.  It is not yet clear what effect this tragedy will have on production.  He leaves behind a 15 year-old daughter. The car, a new Porsche GT, was an unrecognizable chunk of twisted metal.  Walker and a friend was taking the new car for a spin when something caused them to lose control and wrap themselves around a utility pole.  The driver, believed to be  Roger Rodas, was an experienced race car driver.  Onlookers were quick to upload video of the scene onto the web.  For those of you who like to stare at train wrecks,  video is below.

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Eerie irony