Chupacabra

The cattle-eating monster of the Western Hemisphere

Since 1987, first Puerto Rico and then other places around the Western Hemisphere have been the location for a series of gruesome attacks on livestock. Farmers have found goats, sheep, and other small livestock bled dry through a series of small circular incisions. While the killings were first believed to be the work of a Satanic cult, the deaths were eventually attributed to a small but ferocious unknown animal that has become known as the Chupacabra, or “goat sucker” in Spanish.

The first incidents were recorded in Puerto Rico...

In 1987, local newspapers began to carry stories of a series of mysterious deaths of chickens, sheep, dogs, and goats at small farms in the rural countryside. In each case, the animals were apparently sucked dry of all their blood through small holes cut or bitten into their bodies. Farmers were devastated and afraid, as there were frequently multiple deaths in a single incident; some farmers lost almost their entire stock. There was a general public outcry and demand for action against the “chupacabra” or “goat sucker” (the name was coined by a well-known local comedian, and it stuck).

A Satanic Cult?

Initial investigations focused on the possibility that a Satanic cult was operating on the island. (Local clergy, who perhaps saw a chance to scare some of their flock into greater compliance, fueled this suspicion to some degree.) As the investigation wore on and more instances occurred, little evidence of this was discovered, and other theories were put forward, including the possibility that some kind of animal was the culprit.

The early 1990s brought the first eyewitness accounts of a potential suspect. Reports began to surface of a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with red eyes, a scaly surface, spines up the back, and powerful claws and teeth. In some stories, the creature is described as having small bat wings, and the ability to leap some twenty feet. It is also said to hiss, snarl, and emit a powerful and terrible smell.

While few credible photos of this beast exist, the image of the scaly, vicious, reptilian creature has spread beyond Puerto Rico. In the mid 1990s, reports of chupacabra attacks came in from many places in Latin America; attacks have also been reported in Texas and other places in the US, as far north as South Carolina and even Maine. Incidents and sightings continue to this day.

Conventional scientists tend to discount reports of cryptids (legendary animals like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the chupacabra, etc.) unless firm and irrefutable evidence in the form of remains, video, and photographs is provided. For that reason, accounts of the chupacabra are not considered to be evidence of the creature’s existence. Most mainstream scientists and investigators attribute the deaths to the attacks of other predators and scavengers.

Remains alleged to be those of chupacabras have been analyzed on a few occasions, most notably in Nicaragua (where the remains were described as “doglike” but of an unknown variety) and in Texas, where two alleged chupacabras turned out to be coyotes afflicted with a severe variety of mange that had rendered them hairless and deformed.

Extraterrestrial Creature?

Theories as to the origins of the chupacabra center around an extraterrestrial origin, or on the possibility that the creature is a genetic engineering experiment that escaped and has since multiplied and spread.

Whatever its origin, as of early 2007 there were still continuing reports of the creature’s destructive appetite coming from various areas of the Americas. It appears the chupacabra has made itself at home, even if it is unwelcome.

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