El Chupacabra (Goat Sucker)

In 1995, the media in Puerto Rico began to alarm the public, reporting several attacks of farm and rural town animals found with puncture wounds on their neck or their chest, and their blood was extracted through small circular incisions. Even though these mysterious beasts known as the chupacabra were seen earlier in the mid-1970’s in Puerto Rico, and sightings have been reported in Central and South America, some areas of Europe, as well as in many zones in the south of United States; the legend began in Puerto Rico.

While I lived there, I remember hearing about the “Boricua Vampire“.  Many people confessed they saw a strange beast; however, Madelyne Torretino was the first one to describe it.  She told the press, one evening she was standing on the porch of her home and saw a bizarre creature of about 3 to 4 feet tall. The strange animal had an oval head, pointed and long teeth, with bulging red eyes that glowed when it looked at her. The mysterious creature had leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines running down its back. She felt frightened and didn’t move, but the chupacabra seemed scared of her and quietly left.

There are a few versions about its origin. Some people believe the chupacabra could be a runaway of a hybrid experiment by scientists at NASA. Others suggest it could be an alien pet that was left after extraterrestrials visited Earth, and others wonder if it could be a vampire bat.

Regardless the people in Puerto Rico, at first, felt fearful, after further investigation, the press reassured them that the chupacabra was only interested in the animal’s blood, making jokes that they found humans too contaminated with toxins and fat in their veins.

Through several testing scientists conducted of the  DNA of some dead chupacabras, they have concluded these strange creatures were coyotes with a skin disease called mange. This infection causes parasitic mites to nest under the skin of its host and secrete eggs that take over the skin, triggering an inflammatory reaction from the immune system. They indicated that the weakness of these canines causes the need to suck blood from animals because they don’t have the strength to eat them.

The most recent sighting of a chupacabra was in 2007 when several Houston country residents described the creature as the ugliest and the horrendous thing they have ever seen. After witnessing it, they didn’t know how to label it. While some of them said they have seen coyotes with mange; many doubt the origin of the creepy creature that looks so grotesque.

The mystery about these strange beasts remains unsolved.  Could they be a new hybrid of canines and vampires?  If they are aliens, why are they here? Why were they found in Puerto Rico for the first time and have they left the island for good or are they just hiding in a subterranean extraterrestrial base that hides in Puerto Rico?