This is a cool website with much Chupacabra information on it:
http://www.lostworldmuseum.com/?cat=1#35 Chupacabras Spotted in South Carolina Part I
November 17th, 2006 
Her name is Ann. Because of the ridicule she has received she does not want her last name to be known. I can assure you she exists and Ann and I have had many phone conversations. Ann is an OGBYN nurse, grew up in the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina area and has a family with several generations of hunters and even a taxidermist. For years Ann’s family exposed her to every imaginable indigenous animal including various two headed and six legged oddities. Therefore she was comfortable knowing every kind of animal in her environment until the summer of 2006.
Driving to work she said she would see these creatures in yards and fields. She believes she personally witnessed 5 separate chupacabres. Not all at once, but from the different markings she knew she was seeing more than one. “They looked like a grey hound dog,” Ann said, “but it wasn’t a dog. It wasn’t like anything I have ever seen - and it hopped.” That characteristic kept coming up again and again. In all 3 areas - New York, Texas and now South Carolina - animals’ movements were all described the same way. They all hopped, on all fours like a kangaroo, but coming down on all paws unlike a kangaroo. What is it??? Ann admittedly was hooked, she needed to know the truth.
She snapped 50+ photos of the sleek grey critter. She contacted various news medias, colleges and universities e-mailing the photos and sharing her story. Few seemed mildly interested at best and skeptical to the point of criticism at the least. One not so gracious response back was and I quote: “Any 10 year old could create this photo in Photoshop.” Ann was not amused and they wanted more proof. Within weeks Ann had her proof.
Next up: Museum Update.
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#34 Investigation leads to more Chupacabras
November 15th, 2006 
Dirty animal bones, a broken skull and ten pounds of manure went back with me to the museum. Searching and extracting every bone out of the smelly mess was as difficult as understanding the true nature of this critter.
Any mystery requires more and better data to help solve its untold secrets. So back to the Internet I went. The best and most recent lead was found in Coleman, Texas. According to an on-line newspaper article, a Chupacabra was sighted, shot and killed in September 2005 and its carcass was at a college lab undergoing analysis. On Sept 17, 2006, I phoned the Coleman, Texas local and eyewitness, Reggie Lagow. The soft-spoken 90 yr. old told me that this “Critter” killed 30-40 chickens in the neighborhood, was spotted by many and finally shot and killed by his neighbor. Unfortunately the carcass was NOT surrendered to any college like the papers reported. “It was killed on a Tuesday and trash day took it away 2 days later,” Lagow said.
We spent the remaining time comparing our two alleged Chupacabras. There were a few physical differences. His did not have hair but a wool-like coat, like a sheep but with low pile. It was white, although in the photograph it appears grey. Interestingly enough it had no whiskers, was about the size of a small Terrier 28 - 32 inches in length with the tail as long as the body. “I got a good look at it alive when it was in my yard as it ran off with one of my chickens in his mouth.” Again Lagow described the animal’s mysterious, unaccounted for hopping gait that each of our animals possessed. “This Critter”, Lagow exclaimed, “was unlike any kind of animal in the area.” As were we winding down our fascinating conversation the Texan unexpectedly dropped a bomb, “Did you hear about the critter they found in South Carolina last month?”
To be continued…
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#33 What is a Chupacabra? Science Speaks!
October 16th, 2006 
Monday morning September 20th Cornell University was a bustle and hustle with new veterinarian students trying to find their classes. But Justin Austin, 21, hunter and mechanic, was not there to attend class, he was there to discover what species of dead animal he had brought to the science lab a week prior. The attendant stood with the familiar gray plastic tub with a blue tarp bundling a mixture of manure and Chupa bones and placed it on the counter. Justin sighed with relief that the Chupa bones had not been discarded as he had feared. He pressed the attendant for answers as to what this critter is or rather was. “Well,” she said, “a few of our staff looked at a few of the bones and well, they believe it is a fox. A deformed fox with mange.”
Later that day I called Justin. “Fox with mange, hmmmm. What do you think of that?” I asked him. His response was the same as the other two boys, “No Sir. That was a unique animal all its own. It’s not a diseased fox. Remember what Geordie and Josh said, this critter hopped.” All the eye-witnesses were in agreement. Each with their own experiences knowing the area and the animals native to it, along with the dead critter’s strange gait, told them the scientists were wrong. But what does one do when educated professors disagree with common everyday folks who know their backyards better than they? Can they both be right?
… To be continued.
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#32 Chupacabra: Scientists Receive a Strange Package
October 10th, 2006 
Justin set the gray plastic bin on the counter. The remains of an alleged Chupacabra were ready for Cornell University’s examination. Surely they could identify this mysterious beast. “At first,” said Justin, “Cornell’s interest was high. They said that they had never seen anything like it! So I left the remains with the college expecting to hear something soon. The only instructions I gave them were not to throw the bones out.”
It was Sunday September 19th 2006 and the corn roast was about to begin. Most of us present had never heard of a Chupacabra. Even pronouncing the name correctly was a struggle. But the idea of an unnamed species, caught here in New York was terribly exciting. That afternoon Justin brought over Geordie and Josh, the two responsible for catching the critter, for our first meeting. The teens relayed their incredible story first hand. We talked about taking this to the press and about the museum acquiring the bones for a future display and both boys seemed fine with that. As I turned to Justin I asked if he could retrieve the bones from Cornell. He said, “I’ll try.” Suddenly Justin’s cell phone rang. It was his wife Holly. You could tell there was excitement in her voice. Justin hung up and looked at me. “My Aunt who works at Cornell said they are going to throw the bones out and I better get over there pronto.” Bright and early the next morning Justin hustled up Cornell’s concrete sidewalk and pushed through the science center doors determined to do one thing, retrieve those Chupa bones!
To be continued…
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#31 - Mythical Chupacabra Finds Home at the Lost World Museum
September 28th, 2006 
Where do I start on this one? It was totally unexpected. What began as a weekend getaway to a corn roast party took a U turn down a strange road that forced me to stongly consider becoming a Cryptozoologist. Let me chronicle the events as they happened beginning on Friday night September 17, 2006. The host of the annual roast, Don Austin, shared a crazy story of a wild beast, captured by his son’s friends. A local University was in the process of examining these mysterious bones. As you can imagine Don had my full attention.
Justin who is Don’s 21 yr. old son, told his Dad that 15 yr. old Geordie Decker and 16 yr. old Josh Underwood were traveling the “back 40″ with Geordie’s Dad George in their pick up. Peering over the dash all saw what appeared to be a doglike creature no bigger than a fox. Each mind was trying to register what they were seeing and would have thought nothing about the creature until they saw the way it moved slowly across the road…it hopped. Immediately the boys knew it was a chupacabra. One of the boy’s sister had shown them previously on the Internet what a Chupacabra looked like. Dad slammed on the breaks and the boys took off running after it with Josh grabbing a large blanket. 30 minutes of observing, tracking, and chasing tired the beast enough so they threw the blanket over and bagged it!
Eating pizza on the way home both boys beamed as Josh held the bundle out the window. The D.E.C. was first contacted. Excitedly they described what they saw and the Government man responded, “What you have there is a Chupacabra.” And then added, “They’re a myth.” and hung up. For most of the same day the animal was kept in the Becker’s horse trailer. Not knowing what to do next and seeing that there was no interest in their capture one of the brothers shot and killed the beast.
A week passes and the remains setting on horse manure quickly decay. Enter Justin Austin, my corn roast host’s son. He knew from his extensive hunting experience and knowledge of the area that what his friends possessed was no ordinary mammal. Scooping the remains into a plastic bin he traveled to Cornell University. Science would be given a chance to clear up this mystery.
To be continued…
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