Lockup Your Livestock. La Chupacabra Craves Their Blood
- etickle1
- Apr 14, 2021
- 3 min read
In the past few decades, no creature has achieved as much notoriety as the Chupacabra. One of the leading cryptozoologists, Loren Coleman, even went so far as to call it “the single most notable cryptozoological phenomenon of the past decade”. It’s a cross cultural phenomenon that has baffled scientists and the common man alike.
The Chupacabra is a creature that was originally described as a bipedal creature with a mixture of reptilian and kangaroo-like features, large red eyes, long, piercing teeth and a darting tongue. The spark for this creature happened in 1995, much more recent than one might think, when a goat farmer in Puerto Rico claimed to have seen such a creature killing his livestock. But this creature didn’t rip his livestock to shreds or leave only bare bones remaining. Rather, this creature drained every ounce of blood from the bodies of his livestock. This creature was then dubbed “La Chupacabra” or The Goat Sucker (very loosely translated). Since then, many claimed to have seen this creature and over 200 sightings were reported.
As time passed, the appearance of the Chupacabra changed drastically. Some claimed that the Chupacabra was more doglike and walked on all fours.
The supposed appearances of this new Chupacabra spread from Puerto Rico to Mexico. It even went as far south as Chile and as far north as the United States. The Chupacabra had gotten so popular, it even made an appearance on a popular children’s television show at the time, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. For those unaware, the premise of the show was that these two children, Billy and Mandy, had met the Grim Reaper and tricked him into being their best friend for all eternity. A bunch of chaos ensues including but not limited to, elderly classic monsters living in a retirement home, saving Christmas from Vampires, you get the picture. The Chupacabra actually had its own episode dedicated to it in Season 4. The episode was entitled “Aren’t You Chupacabra To See Me?” and within this episode Billy rents a video tape that is haunted by the blood sucking creature. Though in the television show it more closely resembled the original version of the creature, i.e. the large eyes and reptilian features.
Perhaps the producers had thought that the original version fit the overall aesthetic better than this new, canine-esque version of it. Regardless of the reason, this episode was my introduction to this creature. It was one of my favorite episodes, though it was rarely aired. If I remember correctly, I had only seen it 5 times throughout the entire run time of the series. Looking a bit closer into the history of this creature, I might have found the reason why this episode got dropped into obscurity.
The widespread appearances of this new creature fascinated scientists. Thorough research was conducted on the subject and what was concluded was that these were merely dogs and coyotes with severe cases of mange. Mange is a disease in the skin that is most noticeable in canines, but the disease actually originates mostly in primates. Humans can even catch this disease, but we have built up our immune systems over the years enough to not be affected by this disease. Though for man’s best friend it's not as easy to get past. Hair falls out and blood vessels constrict causing extreme fatigue.
While a dog might not kill livestock, a coyote would. Scientists have explained that due to the extreme fatigue that hunting is difficult for wild animals. So livestock is easy prey for any animal afflicted with this disease. However, bloodsucking is not a part of the equation.
Maybe if the appearance of the Chupacabra hadn’t changed so drastically, it wouldn’t have faded out as quickly as it had. There are some that still claim that the Chupacabra was the original appearance, and that the change was just some looking to make some quick money or get their five minutes of fame. Regardless, I don’t think the Chupacabra is going to fade away into obscurity any time soon. The name itself is enough to get one’s attention. And if you’re ever interested in the episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy that I had mentioned, it’s easily found online via Hulu. For now, I’ll leave you with a quick clip from that episode. Enjoy!
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