Chupacabras Galore! [Special Report to ENIGMAS (Madrid), Year 2, No XI of 1996, and also to FSR] (Translation from Spanish. G.C.)
Some months ago, in ENIGMAS 2/2, we had a big report on chupacabras, which has led to widespread discussion. And now recent happenings in Portugal (ENIGMAS 2/10) and also in certain regions of Spain, give rise to speculation as to whether or not we already have in fact chupacabras here killing sheep
in both of our countries?
While of course some of these reports of dead sheep (which reports are numerous in recent months in both Spain and
Portugal) can indeed genuinely be attributed to ordinary causes �
predators etc. � it looks as though we really do have the
chupacabras already! (And maybe it is not something new after all, but something - concrete and real � as past historical
cases do indicate).
Furthermore, contrary to certain folk who have tried to deny it, chupacabra activity is moreover still going on, not only in Puerto Rico, but also in other regions of Central America � particularly Mexico, where there is a total publicity blackout on it.
From the Cosmos foundation (Fundaci�n Cosmos) in Monterrey, Mexico, we recently received this report by the engineer Marco A. Reynoso: - "The chupacabras is a latent danger for all mankind. The results of necropsies performed by doctors of the Cosmos Foundation indicate that the perforations in the thoracic cavity go right straight down, converging on the heart, which is destroyed, along with the other vital organs, liver and lungs etc; the blood is totally extracted, � at times together with some organ or other, via the perforations, the diameter of which runs from 1cm. to 1.5cm."
"In 70% of the cases, there are sightings of UFOs in the same night or the preceding night, but we still have not been able to find a direct relationship between the two phenomena � the UFO sightings and the killings."
"On the Island of Puerto Rico the gagging policy does not go to such extremes as in Mexico. However, certain TV channels did receive threats that their licences might be revoked because they were "alarming the population unnecessarily."
"The results of the blood analysis and genetic analysis made on samples of hair and blood from the chupacabras are themselves thoroughly alarming." It states textually: -
"From the results of the analysis it is deduced that it is impossible for us to place the characteristics found in the sample alongside those of any organism known to us. The organism from which that sample originated could be the product of a highly sophisticated genetic manipulation, or it could be an organism strange to our environment, or it could maybe be a species of animal totally unknown to mankind."
Other preliminary analyses of sub-types and analyses of a genetic nature are not yet conclusive, but the results obtained so far indicate that the sample studies come from an organism that is unknown to the present-day science.
On September 7, 1996, the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias carried the following article which already mentions the chupacabras in connection with attacks on flocks of sheep:- "In connection with the deaths of sheep in Portugal and Spain, one of the Portuguese TV channels conducted a reportage
comparing incidents in Portugal with those that had occurred in Latin America. The doubt as to whether it was a question of
chupacabras having crossed the Atlantic or it was the work of some conventionally known animal greatly alarmed the cattle breeders of this region and of other regions of Portugal.
Therefore, following the example of other countries with problems of this type, The Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture attempted to make it clear that the killings had definitely been caused by a wolf. Their spokesman, the veterinarian Alvaro Lopes, stated this publicly in the local newspaper, Gazeta Do Interior, at the same time as he criticized the sensational nature of the report put out on television. Nevertheless, we ourselves know that he was very surprised indeed by the wounds on the carcases of the dead cattle and was quite unable to say what animal could have caused them. He actually said as much to a person whose name we obviously are unable to mention.
A biologist, Pedro Sarmento, also said it was a wolf - but no ordinary wolf - an extremely intelligent and experienced one!
The most striking feature in killings of this kind are the orifices found in the dead animals� necks. And some folk even adduce the most fatuous solutions in their zeal to clear up the mystery. For example, on September 10, 1996, the provincial Portuguese newspaper Povo Da Beira carried the following story:-
TOOTHLESS WOLF KILLS NINE SHEEP. MYSTERY UNRAVELLED AT LA RAIA.
At Touloes, a place in the district of Idanha-A-Nova, the population were shaken by the mysterious cases of sheep found dead with an orifice in the neck.... At first the veteriniarians were to a certain extend intrigued over what had happened, because it had been observed that there was a tiny orifice on the animals which, just by itself, had sufficed to cause their deaths. Finally however it was given out that the mystery slayer of the 28 sheep � already known locally as a �chupacabras� � was nothing but an old wolf who had come down from the top mountains in search of food.
The results of the studies conducted by biologists and veterinarians had however permitted the final conclusion that it was simply a matter of "one old wolf with one single canine tooth.�
Grotesque as this �explanation� is the Pova Da Beira was not the only newspaper that put it around, for, a few days earlier, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, in Madrid, had carried a similar report:
PSYCHOPATH WITH A DOG.
�One hundred dead sheep found in Vizcaya (Spain�s Basque Region. G.C.), all with a puncture hole in the neck. The
cattle farmers think the perpetrator of the massacre is a psychopath who has, as a companion, an animal with one single tooth�.
To learn more about this, we visited the region in question, the Valley de las Encartaciones. We knew that the ERTZAINTZA (I presume this is the Basque name for the Police or the Security? G.C.) were in charge of the investigations, so it was to them that we went. To tell the truth, given the �delicate political-social situation� of the Basque community, our hopes of finding out anything worthwhile were scanty in the extreme. However we must stress the very friendly way in which they did treat us and also the value of the information that was given to us. We were allowed access to the archives, and saw the depositions, along with prints of the photos of the dead animals, and we were also given the addresses and telephone numbers of the people involved.
With regard to the wounds on the dead animals, a policeman, Fernando Gardiaz�bal, who had had the job of checking up on some of the statements made by eyewitnesses, assured us that the wounds did not look as though caused by wolves.
One particular detail, namely the nature of the strange instrument used in making the wounds, cropped up again here, as can be deduced from the words of one of the people. He said: �A number of the animals had various of their bones and their vertebrae destroyed by some sort of needle introduced
through the neck�.
One of the people who recently lost a number of sheep was Jos� Luis Ribacoba. With a certain degree of surprise he remarked: �Apart from the fact of these wounds being very strange, it is puzzling how none of the animals ever recover.
"Years ago, some wolf would turn up and would wreak some damage. He would carry off a sheep. And that was that.
Sometimes he would even tear off a few kilos of flesh from the
hindquarters of a calf or a horse. When we discovered such cases, the animal would be very weak, but we trimmed off the hair and
treated the wound with permanganate of potash and a concoction of herbs, and the wound would then heal up, and even though the wound had been a severe one, the animal would survive and would be alright. But these wounds nowadays are far, far smaller, and yet they do not heal.�
To our query as to what he thought was the cause of these wounds, he replied: �I don�t know. Of course it is something new - something that we never saw previously. But I don�t know what it is ... And the ERTZAINTZA still tell me nothing. They tell me that they are investigating, but I don�t know whether they are saying this to calm us down or whether they really are doing anything�.
Another man, Ricardo Fern�ndez, of Balmaseda, has got almost no sheep left. He has had 30 killed in these same
circumstances, and in one night, in the Angostura area.
He doesn�t think it is a wolf either. He thinks it is some dog with a killer instinct, which has �gone wild�. He said: �Folk abandon their dogs when they go away on holiday, and the dogs take to the hills and �go wild��.
Two other men who have seen their flocks of sheep cut down in recent months are Manuel Trasvi�a and Felix Diego.
The mountainous regions of Espaladaseca, Urbaliza, Islo, Angostura, Antu�ano and Tromosamos are some of the settings in which the sheep-killings have occurred. And, further to the south, the Sierra de Urbasa is an area where the local bucolic
tranquility has been shattered by incursions of the mysterious
killer-beast.
Jos� Vedayo, a cattle-breeder from Olazagut�a, found one of his colts dead. The animal had one wound in the neck and another on one side of the hindquarters.
We decided that we would ourselves pay a visit to the Sierra de Ubasa - a region hitherto only known to us from the cinema. The journey up to El Raso is almost like an initiatory trip prior to the achievement of Glory! Away up there, so near to the sky, amid the copses of beech trees and the rocks, we were snatched out of our idyllic rural reveries by the sudden sight of a tall shepherd emerging from one of the huts, an axe in hand.
One of the cattlemen there told me that there had never been wolves in that region. He said: �The sheep have always
slept out in the open here and nothing has ever happened before�.
The same opinion was expressed to us by Anna-Mar�a Ormaz�bal and her children Roberto and Juan Mar�a Olazar�n. All the same, they are quite certain that wolves are involved - not because they have normally been there but because somebody
released the wolves there! They say: �The area where they are active is very specific and defined. Someone must have put
the wolves there, because, had the wolves come from elsewhere they would have left tracks. And they haven�t left tracks.
Somebody released them here.�
The curious thing is that these �wolves� kill their victims, suck out their blood, and then leave the flesh intact.....
Roberto, her son, assures us that one night, right beside his flock of sheep, he saw two pairs of big eyes that made a great impression on him. It is for this reason that these folk have no doubts whatsoever about the �wolf�. (But what if it were a question of some other �impossible� creature?. See ENIGMAS, year II, No. 7).
However the facts of the situation may be, the whole business is a tremendous nuisance in the areas where it is occurring. As Anna-Mar�a Ormaz�bal explained to us: �The farm animals aren�t the same now as they used to be. When night falls they come home themselves, because they are scared. Previously they would sleep out there on the hillsides, and wandered far afield. Also they now yield far less milk than previously.�
"A PAIR OF PUMAS".
This is however not the first time that the stockmen of these areas have faced such problems. In 1986, the flocks of sheep in the Cinco Villas region of Arag�n Province suffered attacks from a dangerous aggressor. The newpaper Diario De Navarra reported the events as follows:-
�The strange animal that is attacking the sheep in the Ribera Alta area of Navarra Province is, it seems, large, very agile, and runs very fast, though nobody has been able to identify it, so that speculation about it still continues�.
As in other cases investigated by us, diverse and contrary opinions exist. Some say �It�s wolves�, and others say: �Dogs gone wild�. Yet other investigators claim that it is a sort of big cat. The manager of the Lanar Group�s enterprises in the region, Sr. Enrique Malo, says: �It�s a clever animal, very fast, and one that doesn�t attack man�.
Some speculations are that the perpetrators are a couple of pumas and their young. This rumour is based on the discovery of some very large footprints - some of them of the size of a human hand - while there are others which are smaller than that. Regarding the creature�s method of action, Sr. Malo continues: �The puma is an animal that can pick up a scent at five kilometres. It does not attack cattle when man is around. Normally it enters and leaves via the same spot, and with an
extraordinary rapidity it has jumped over fences more that 2 1/2 m. high�.
One feature that has forcibly struck the people living in these areas of Spain is the creature�s wide radius of action. This leads them to deduce that the father puma may operate from one side and the mother and kittens from the other side.
Equally unexplained by anyone is of course the origin of these �pumas� in Spain! Some say that they escaped from a circus that was performing in Fraga. Others think the person responsible is �El Alem�n�, the German�, - a very strange gentleman � according to local opinion � who trains hunting hounds at his farm, �La Carbonera�.
Someone has claimed that, a few years ago, during a fire at this farm, they had seen two puma cubs there. However, when the Guardia Civil (Police) questioned �the German� about this, he denied ever having owned such animals. Some people whom we know recently visited him and remarked to us that he was a totally normal man and that there was of course nothing �strange�
about him.
Shortly after that, we were told that the problem had been solved. It wasn�t a case of dogs gone wild or of the �German�s pumas. At Biota a huge wolf weighing 52 kilos had been killed by members of the Guardia Civil when they were participating in a �game-drive� through the woods organized by the locals!
This �terrible animal�, the 52-kilo wolf, was put on show on the main square of the town!
The foregoing report in the Diario De Navarra is perfect, and it puts us in mind of one of those children�s stories in which the wolf always has to stand for whatever is bad. �Once it had appeared on the Square hanging from its rear end, its body seemed drawn out and longer, and a pool of blood started to form on the ground beneath its head.�
The Biota veterinary man Fernando Labena hit the nail on the head when he queried whether, in reality, despite the great size and weight of the wolf, it could have possibly been the cause of all those disasters in the region. He said: �It�s a very big wolf, but my personal opinion is that it isn�t the sole cause of all the problems�.
And of course it wasn�t. The problem still continues and the precise cause of all these deaths is still unknown. Rumour and popular fantasy are in wild flood, and folk always seek for a known enemy whom they can fight.
All the same, when you talk to people here, face to face, it is clear that they do know there can be SOMETHING ELSE.
�Something that has been brought here and that wasn�t here before� - said one old experienced cattleman. Many of them, when talking of these matters, come out with the words �THAT CRITTER!�
IT IS NOT SOMETHING NEW!
Despite all the bears, the wolves, and the dogs gone wild, and despite a whole number of other creatures seen as the possible cause of the killings, there still remains a part which is without explanation. It is this part that now interests us, for it remains and persists in the archives of inexplicable phenomena of today and of all time.
To conclude that these strange deaths are the work of an �Iberian Chupacabras.� or, alternatively, to conclude that they are due to secret experiments by humans � such a conclusion is simply frivolous. What we are concerned with here is just one
more piece in a complex jigsaw puzzle that is of course far, far older than has so far been suggested by the media or by certain
specialised review journals. It would be adviseable if we recall some of those events and facts from the past:
(1) In January 1874 one of these murderous creatures was committing depredations in Ireland. It too inflicted incisions in the throat and sucked the blood of its victims.
(2) Around about that same date, another similar beast was killing animals and humans in various regions of Russia. The Russian Army went out searching for it. They combed every thicket. But without result.
(3) In 1906 the flocks of sheep near Windsor Castle in England were attacked by a mysterious animal which could never be captured because it �vanished into thin air�.
(4) In 1905 a Police Sergeant in Groncestershire (sic. for Gloucestershire? G.C.) told the Daily Mail: �I have seen mutilated animals and I can say with all certainty that it is impossible for that to have been the work of a dog. Dogs are not vampires; they don�t suck the blood of a sheep and then leave the flesh almost intact.�
In spite of everything, these statemtns from other times and other places are so similar to the statements that we are today collecting in Spain and Portugal and elsewhere that the only possible posture for us to accept is that we today are still being confronted by new manifestations of an ancient mystery.
Included within Magdalena del Amo-Freixedo�s main article in ENIGMAS 2/XI, were the three following subsidiary items:
I. TENERIFE; TWENTY YEARS BEFORE THE �CHUPACABRAS� As seems wont to happen with everything presumed at first to be new, the adventures of the �CHUPACABRAS� critter, so
much discussed of late in the media, appear to possess some historical antecedents that - although equally or even more
interesting - previously nevertheless achieved less fame-if indeed any if they ever escaped from strictly confidential limits.
In the year 1979 I was in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, 28�20N., 16�40W.) signing copies of one of my first books at the Akenaton Bookshop (in those days run by the good Paco Padr�n). Lots of friends and followers of my TV series came to the shop to greet me, and out of all of them I most particularly recall two men. They hadn�t come to ask me to sign books for them, but to speak to me privately, to which I agreed - particularly after they had identified themselves to me as members of the Higher Echelons of Police and Security.
It was not an �official visit�. They simply wanted to know my opinion about certain events that for some weeks past had been going on in the municipal region of La Laguna, and particularly around Taco. It had to do with sheep and goats found dead in extremely strange circumstances. They appeared totally bloodless, with not a single drop of blood in the bodies. But,
surprisingly, there were no signs of any blood either around or on the bodies - as though they had been sucked clean.
Nor were there any signs of violence.
And another inexplicable detail was that the skins of the animals appeared to be soaked through with water without there having been any rain, and with the terrain immediately around bone-dry.
And finally, the sole sign left by the attacker was a small and perfectly circular orifice some 30 cms. in diameter at the surface and sufficiently deep to affect the immediately adjacent internal organs. The position of the orifice was different in all the animals.
Tenerife, like other islands of the Canary Archipelago, still retains in certain of its districts an ancient tradition of MAGIC, and there are many folk there who practice rituals aimed at various diverse objectives.
Such �MAGIC� was the initial hypothesis formulated by the Tenerife Police, but observation of the details which I just mentioned above caused the Police to discard such theories instantly. Whoever had done the killings had employed knowledge
and methods in no way corresponding to those of a ceremonial
sacrifice.
The two agents informed me in confidence that in the same area sightings of luminous objects were occurring, for
which reason there was the possibility of a link between the killings and the UFO Phenomenon.
So far as I myself was concerned, the matter ended there. They did accept my suggestion that they send to me in Madrid, in a suitably prepared box, one of the dead animals, so that we might have a detailed autopsy done at the Veterinary Faculty. But I imagine that bureacratic procedures rendered the project unfeasible.
II. IN GALICIA (N.W. SPAIN): WOLVES - BUT ALSO �SOMETHING ELSE�. Galicia, the Spanish region with most cattle, has recently been the scene of killings of animals. The peasants are seeing their flocks of sheep reduced, and, so far, no organisation has furnished any solution for the problem. In recent days we have visited dozens of the people affected. The data collected by us point in two thoroughly distinct directions.
On the one hand, we have a wolf or a pack of wolves, attacking animals and eating them - ar at any rate eating them partially. The carcases of the animals are torn and scratched. Other animals are left wounded, and, after adequate treatment, they recover completely.
Arturo L�pez P�rez, a wealthy cattle-owner from the locality of Sarria (Lugo) even fired shots to scare off the wolves. He told us: �Thanks to that, of my animals they killed only one heifer. Had it been otherwise, God only knows what destruction they would have wrought. They killed the heifer calf because wolves always attack the WEAKEST of the animals.�
(Statement to us when we visited his farm at Pena).
Others who lost a number of cows and heifers as a result of the wolf were Manuel Pombo, Carlos Valladares and Antonio Albaredo. A man named Ram�n, owner of a furniture store, lost two valuable colts. None of these animal deaths pointed to
anything abnormal, despite the fact that that particular region is not one with many wolves.
But, on the other hand, we encountered a whole series of cases showing a very distinct pattern and fully deserving of the label �Strange�.
Julia Chousa Losada, co-proprietor of the farm �Os Dogos� (= English �The Bulldogs�. G.C.) at Barbadela, lost 35 sheep. Her detailed account of the wounds was very different indeed from the other category mentioned above. She said: �The sheep had two little round holes right in the neck... Outwardly it hardly looked as though they had any wounds at all. All that you could see was just a tiny bit of blood... One of the sheep had a small gash... As for being eaten, none of the sheep were eaten at all.... Five were still alive, but after a few days all of those were dead. None of them recovered. There was even one that was still standing, and I got hold of it and said �This one can still be saved�. But no sooner had I said it than the animal fell down and died. Many of the ewes were carrying lambs. It �went for� the youngest, the most lively. Normally, wolves always
attack the weakest.�
In fact, so do all the predators. Curiously, just as in other cases, we found footprints there of two different sizes.
These happenings in Galicia show us once again that we are confronted with two distinct problems.
ON THE ONE HAND - THE WOLF. ON THE OTHER HAND,�THAT OTHER THING�.
III THE REPORT IN THE NEWSPAPER DIARO DE NAVARRA OF AUGUST 24, 1993.
A STRANGE AND ELUSIVE CARNIVORE KILLS SCORES OF CATTLE ON THE FARMS OF TERUEL *. VICTIMS LEFT WITH THROATS SLASHED AND BLOOD SUCKED OUT
More than 80 head of cattle have been killed by a mysterious predator that, over the past two months, has become legendary and is destroying both the sheep and the savings of farmers in the Teruel districts of Almohaja, Santa Eulalia, R�denas, and Pozond�n, the losses totalling Pesetas 800,000.
According to a statement published in the newspaper Heraldo De Arag�n last Monday, nobody knows whence �it� came and
very few have managed to get a clear view of it, despite the
organisation of numerous unsuccessful �sweep-searches�.
The characteristics of the animal are: great intelligence, shown by its stealthiness; its skill in leaving no tracks; it enormous ferocity (for it leaves its victims with the throat slashed and some folk even assure us that it sucks the victim�s blood); and its terrifying appearance, a sort of cross between a dog, a wolf, and a fox.
There are already various theories as to what species the animal belongs to. Many think it is a wolf - an animal that vanished from this Teruel region (due east from Madrid. G.C.) all of 50 years ago. - and there are others who think it is a cross between dog and fox and even betwen dog, fox and wolf. But these hybrids would be biologically impossible.
The most reliable version is that it is a wolf or a dog �gone wild�. Though it is quite possible that there are several of them, since the attacks have been very numerous and have often occurred in various places simultaneously.
A group of naturists have promptly started demonstrating in front of the Provincial Office of Agriculture saying that it is illegal to carry out sweep-searches without having secured the necessary permission - particularly if -as the ecologists insinuate - �the opportunity is being taken to shoot anything that moves�.
There have also been warnings that it is illegal to kill a wolf, or several wolves, because in any case this species is already protected thoughout Spain.
� Flying Saucer Review Library of Congress copyright FSR Publications, Ltd. 1981. Contributions appearing in this magazine do not necessarily reflect its policy and are published without prejudice.
Gordon Creighton (Editor FSR)
by Magdalena del Amo-Freixedo
FSR Consultant
� by Dr. JIMENEZ DEL OSO
Editor of ENIGMAS (Madrid)
By Magdalena del Amo-Freixedo.
(TERUEL, 40�22N., 1�08W. G.C.)