Terrifying Creature Called Chupacabra

By James Donahue

The sightings have been so common throughout the natives in various South American countries, Puerto Rico and the Southwestern United States that the existence of a creature known as the chupacabra, or "goat sucker," appears to reach beyond local legend and offer some grain of reality..

Not only have the stories abounded, but images of strange creatures, allegedly shot by farmers, have begun to make their appearance on the World Wide Web. Because of new imaging technology some can still argue that the images are faked and that no such creature exists. Thus the chupacabra falls into a similar category with the UFO . . . a lot of people say they have seen them, there are images, but science remains skeptical.

Following are some of the stories from people who claim to have seen this creature.

A couple identified only as Dub and Ann, say they were driving home late one night in 2004, near Crockett, Texas, when they saw a creature dash across the road in front of the car headlights. "It was about ten feet in front of our car. We both later on drew a picture of what we saw and they (the images) look almost the same," said Dub. They said it ran upright on its hind legs, stood an estimated four to five feet in height, and had a slim body. "The knees bent backward, not forward as a human's. The arms chugged back and forth like a person running. The head had a pointed chin and a pointed top at the back like a rooster's comb. They body looked gray or some other dark color. The thing looked to be an alien," he said.

A frightening sighting of not just one, but two creatures meeting a similar description, is told by a woman identified only as Millie G., who said her confrontation occurred in 1969 when she was just ten and was visiting relatives in a remote area of Puerto Rico. She said she and a cousin were exploring the wooded area behind the house late one night and came face-to-face with them. "We heard a throaty, sinister laugh to our left," she said. "Mitch quickly flashed his light to the area and there, standing no more than two feet tall, was the most hideous, grotesque thing that I would ever see in my life. It was greenish brown in color with scaly skin. It had huge red eyes and an equally large mouth crowded with very long fang-like teeth. It had exactly two tentacle-like strands protruding from its head. It stood there with a left clawed hand resting on a tree while the right-clawed hand motioned for us to come forward. Suddenly we heard another sinister laugh coming from another direction. There, at the opening of the outhouse stood another creature." Millie said they ran frantically back to the house and spent a frightened night listening to sounds of strange noises. She said they left the next day.

When stories of the Chupacabra emerged some years ago, with reports of the creatures killing farm animals and sucking their blood, Millie said she knew it was the same creature that confronted her. "My blood ran cold when I saw a drawing of the creature. I know what I saw, and the similarities were not coincidental. These things are real and they are smart and calculating. The woods are a perfect hiding place, and I am convinced that they have been here for a very, very long time."

Linked to the 1969 sighting is a report that the first public report of a chupacabra-like sighting occurred in 1975, only six years later, after several farm animals in Puerto Rico were found dead and their blood sucked dry. There were strange puncture-like marks on their necks, as if left by some kind of vampire-like beast.

After that, the sightings increased into the 1990s as farmers reported literally hundreds of their animals being slaughtered. This was when the name chupacabra was coined. It means "goatsucker."

By the end of the century sightings were reported on other Caribbean islands, in Mexico, Central America, Chile, and the southern United States.