The Chupacabra Thread

Some numbers of weird animal deaths in South America: :xbones:


Argentina
500 cases in 2002
1,082 cases in 2003
493 cases in 2004
75 cases so far this year
That's 2,150 animal mutilations, largely focused in the province of La Pampa, Argentina.

Chile

Paralleling Argentina along the Andes mountains is Chile. 1,294 animal mutilations since 2002. If you combine Argentina's and Chile's reported animal mutilations, the number is 3,244 in the past three and a half years.

Other

That's not counting the 1,461 poultry deaths in Chile caused by Something that punctures the birds with bloodless holes. Bloodless punctures were the calling card of the infamous chupacabras creatures that attacked in Puerto Rico, Mexico and the southern U. S. from 1995 to 1996. In addition, there were 837 mutilated and punctured animals on Brazil farms in 1997.

Along with the thousands of unusual animal deaths, Chile and Argentina eyewitnesses have also seen unidentified aerial objects and beams of light - despite the Argentina government's official explanation for all the animal deaths: a red-snouted mouse.

Chupacabra sightings date back to the mid 70's, actually. In Puerto Rico.
Something killed a bunch of livestock, sucking out all the blood, and several vital organs, through two small holes in the neck.

Eyewitnesses claim seeing a 3 or 4 foot tall creature, grey, or dark green, with a giant head, big red eyes and wings.

It is similar to creatures like the Jersey Devil and Spring Heeled Jack.
Except the Chupa kills more small animals.

Chupacabra has was reported in Florida as far back as 1996, and is reported in California and Texas as well.

Many theories regarding the creation of the chupa exist. Lots of people believe the Chupa was created by the US government genetic labs, as it's earliest sightings were in areas near US bases. The theory goes that the US considered Puerto Rico to be a great big self contained testing lab. Except Chupas got away from the base, and eventually got off the island.
Other ideas run from aliens from ufo's (unexplained lights are often seen during Chupa reports) to undiscovered natural life form.

Feb. 28, 2006 - In south Texas, its frightening name resurfaces in the news every few months - especially after another neighborhood pet or farm animal mysteriously dies.

"El Chupacabra," they say, "is back."

Parents are cautious, warning their children to stay inside at night or risk a face-to-fang encounter with the chupacabra - a red-eyed, spiky-haired, blood-sucking creature with a green-blue tint to its hide.

The chupacabra haunts the minds of the residents in La Frontera, the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Here, an amalgamation of cultures blend, represented by Gulf shrimp tacos, polka-inspired Tejano music, and young, white girls who also hold quinceneras, the Mexican teen rite-of-passage celebration.

Amid this mostly peaceful cultural mishmash, the chupacabra - translates to goat-sucker - replaces the boogeyman. Rumored to be originally of Puerto Rican folklore, the chupacabra and its reign spread to Central America in the '80s and '90s, and has moved northward through Mexico and Texas, where it has quickly been embraced and has lately been portrayed in artwork and film.

Is It Real?

Like other mythic monsters, the chupacabra has its believers - just ask www.elchupacabra.com Webmaster and science-fiction buff Dave Pettis.

"I just believe there can be something out there like that," said Pettis, who lives in Northern California. "I don't think every animal in the world has been classified."

Pettis said he gets lots of e-mails from people. Some are curious about the creature, while others want to submit their own sightings.

"Some people think it's some [lab] experiment that escaped, but other people think it's some animal that's been around for a long time, like in South America. The clearing of the rain forests has made it come out," he said.

The Mexican Boogeyman

It's these sorts of theories that make anthropologist Tony Zavaleta chuckle.

He loves the chupacabra myth, but it's for different reasons. It's simply a great part of Mexican-American folklore, he said.

While the chupacabra is by far the most popular myth, it is just one of several indigenous monsterlike creatures. There's also El Cucuy, or a small humanlike demon that also goes after kids at night.

"It's so universal. … Every group of people, regardless of where they are, they have what I define or describe as the boogeyman - the story you use to keep children in line and inside at night," said Zavaleta, a professor and vice president for external affairs at the University of Texas at Brownsville.

Zavaleta's favorite encounter with the chupacabra came while walking through Mexico City a few years ago. He spotted a mask for sale - one that looked partly like a chupacabra and partly like the Mexico president at that time. He had to laugh.

"It's the metaphor for the evil president: the blood sucker," he said.

The Whimsical Monster

High in the mountains of northern Mexico, not far from the Texas border, many of the farmers do not laugh about the chupacabra, said artist and fellow Texas professor Carlos Gomez. There, the chupacabra is blamed for killing cattle and other livestock.

While traveling around the El Cielo cloud forest a few years ago, he tried to joke with the locals about the blood-sucking monster.

He received a cool response.

"There had been some sightings. People were panicking," he said. "Their livestock is their livelihood. They really depend on that."

His trip inspired him to create a recent set of paintings about the chupacabra. Instead of portraying it as a monster, he took a whimsical approach, defying local perceptions.

"Some are old. Some are young and showboating," he said. "Some are blue with red moles, or red with freckles."

A Cult Favorite

Henry Serrato, who works for a south Texas television station and is an amateur filmmaker, also took a whimsical approach with his mockumentary or documentary spoof titled "The Search for the Chupacabra."

Blending real in-person interviews with fictionalized accounts, his film highlights some of the absurdities of the science-fiction fan world - such as the time a real film crew showed up in south Texas ready to film scenes about sightings of a giant Pterodactyl-like bird last spotted there in the '70s.

"The crew shows up in 1996 - 20 years too late. Here was a crew going around interviewing about the big bird, and everyone wants to talk about the chupacabra," he said.

"It's reached cult status," he said of the chupacabra.

Just a Coyote?

Lately, there have been signs that the chupacabra myth may die out before reaching worldwide fame.

Several carcasses of supposed chupacabras have been brought to the attention of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

And its official determination?

The animals were nothing but coyotes with severe cases of sarcoptic mange, a nasty skin disease that leaves the animals emaciated and partially hairless with bluish skin.

It's a plausible explanation for why people may let their imaginations wander, said Danny Pence, a professor of parasitology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. He was talking to the San-Antonio Express-News.

"If you never worked with them or seen them, they do look strange," he told the newspaper.

But Pettis, the chupacabra Webmaster, isn't convinced. He has seen several pictures of the carcasses.

"It didn't look like a coyote. Its back legs were too long," he said.

Chupa craziness!

Chupacabra to Congress: Without Us, Who Will Drink the Blood of Your Goats?
By Chad Fifer, Mar 29, 2006
As the Senate begins to overhaul the particularly harsh immigration policy passed by the House, thousands of pro-immigrant protestors have taken to the streets to voice their opinion -- among them, the elusive Chupacabra!

From: Anónimo

To: The United States Senate

Re: U.S. Immigration Policy

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate,

Hola.

I am writing to you from a small cave somewhere in the American Southwest, my humble home since 1996. I live a quiet life here, and rarely involve myself in politics of any kind. There is a reason for this, which I am sure many of you may have already guessed. You see, I am an illegal immigrant in this country, and live in constant fear of deportation at the hands of your INS agents. In addition, I am El Chupacabra, famed goat-sucker of Latin legend.

As I said, I normally keep my political opinions (as well as my scaly, greenish-gray body) hidden from others, but was so moved by the thousands of students who left school this week to march in support of immigrant rights that I felt compelled to step up and lend my voice to the cause. My horrible, braying, unnatural voice.

Allow me to tell you my story. I was born in Iztapalapa, one of the poorest areas of Mexico City, in a small shack made of cinder blocks. My mother was a beautiful young seamstress who had been kicked out of the house when her family discovered she was pregnant without a husband. My father was a Chupacabra who inseminated her while she slept before boarding an orb of light and fleeing to the farthest regions of the galaxy.

It was difficult growing up without a father to teach me how to play baseball or ride a bike, and my human mother only shrieked and stabbed at me when I approached our filthy dwelling. Clean water was scarce, as were the delicious goats that filled my dreams. The only thing that kept me warm at night as I drifted off to sleep in the local dump, clutching the carcass of a rat or mangy squirrel, was the dream of a better world where the livestock were plenty. A better world. America.

I first attempted to make my way across the border at 16 by pulling the stuffing from an enormous Tweety Bird doll and sewing myself inside. As any cryptozoologist can tell you, the mature Chupacabra is typically between three and four feet tall, but since I was still young, it seemed an easy fit. Once concealed, I attempted to get myself sold on the Tijuana border as a cheap souvenir for American tourists. Unfortunately, I had not thought to ask for the assistance of a roadside seller, and all of the drivers squealed away in horror at the sight of a dirty Tweety Bird hopping toward them in the rearview mirror, the sharp quills of my back protruding through the doll's furry yellow hide.

Although daunted by this first experience, I eventually did make it across the border by hiding inside of a small shipping container in the back of a truck, nearly dying of dehydration in the process. Were there an easier way for me to come to America legally (and also if I weren't a horrific creature of urban legend that would doubtless be quarantined by the military, tested and destroyed), of course I would have done it. But so desperately did I crave escape from the misery of my own land that the risk of death was not too great. I would have done anything to get here. And my story is not rare.

I understand that after the terrorist attacks on this country, Americans are nervous about protecting their borders, but we must remember that this is a country built by immigrants! You may deride the Mexicans and los Chubacabras now, but remember how the Italians were treated when they came here. Or the Irish. Or the Chinese. They were all considered swarthy, shifty, un-American immigrants at one time. Now, these groups make up the backbone of society and own many, many goats that I will suck on.

I am so tired of hearing American citizens talk about how the illegal immigrants are coming in and taking their jobs from them. Come on! If we weren't illegal, you wouldn't be able to get away with paying us next to nothing. And do you really want to have those jobs? Do you really want to clean toilets, or wash dishes, or maul livestock all night long? I mean, can you imagine your typical New York stockbroker having to sneak onto a farmer's property in the middle of the night and quietly drink the blood of five goats? Forget about it! First of all, he wouldn't possess the dread gaze of the Chupacabra, a gaze which makes all animals freeze and succumb to my vampiric embrace. Secondly, he wouldn't want to get his fancy suit all dirty.

I am glad that Congress is finally making some attempts to deal with the 11 million unauthorized migrants and 15 elusive Chupacabras now in the United States, but the bill passed by the House to make all of us felons is ridiculous. And the perception that we are coming into this country in order to take advantage of America's benefits while we lie around doing nothing is just plain stupid. We work hard for next to nothing, always afraid of being deported back to the squalor from which we came. We are an engine for this country, and we want to be accepted by this country. Yes, we have broken laws to get here, but many of us needed a solution right away, and the slow motion of the bureaucracies just would not do. Also, the number of goat attacks on children has dropped to an all-time low since we got here. It's true. Seriously.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's recommendation to allow illegal immigrants to stay after paying a fine, learning English and getting a background check is preferable to what the House wants, although the fines are a bit steep - $1,000 now, $1,000 later, plus any back taxes we might owe. Chupa ain't got that kind of scratch - I don't know where you're getting your figures. Maybe you let people work it off over time - something reasonable like that. Chupa don't have all the answers, neither. But as you continue to work toward a solution, you should remember that even though many of us don't know English, we do know "give me your hungry, your tired, your poor." We are poor, we are tired, and we are hungry for the blood of your small and defenseless livestock (or domestic pets if we happen to be located in an urban center).

We are the American dream.

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