Chupacabra Discoverers United
LAST UPDATE: 11/16/2004 5:34:49 AM
Posted By: CyberBob

Martha Trevino
News 4 WOAI

It's a relationship that's as wild as the creatures that brought them together. What exactly are these creatures? A dog? A wolf? The chupacabra? WOAI brings together an Elmendorf rancher and an East Texas animal lover, so they can share their fascinating finds.

Whatever they are, they're turning up more and more these days. While we can merely speculate, two people have firsthand knowledge of the critters.

Elmendorf rancher Devin MacNally started this chupacabra phenomenon months ago when he shot a mysterious animal on his property. East Texas animal lover Stacy Womack made another mysterious discovery under her house.

News 4 WOAI took Devin to Lufkin to meet Stacy, so the two could compare notes. It wasn't long before the two set to swapping stories.

“See his didn't have quite the overbite, but it's so much the same,” said Stacy as the two compared notes.

“The ears are always what got me anyway,” replied Devin. “But see how much healthier mine is? It was pregnant.”

Another peculiar coincidence...

“It only took a shot to kill mine, but it didn't make a noise,” explained Devin. “It didn't move. It didn't do nothing. So I thought that it was like a possum.”

Stacey says almost exactly the same thing occurred with her mysterious beast.

Stacy spent twenty years working with a veterinarian and as a zookeeper for five years, so some of her expertise came in handy on this visit.

She debunked the mange theory.

“This was not a secondary infection,” she pointed out as she examined the pictures. “This was scaly skin. There was no secondary infection in this animal caused by mange.”

“That's exactly what I said,” said Devin. “But somebody looked at it last week and said it's just a mangy coyote.”

While Stacy has ruled out what she found as being a dog or a coyote, she’s still not sure what it is.

The first round of DNA tests on the Elmendorf beast came back inconclusive because the animal had been dead for too long. Stacy’s hoping that new DNA tests will help explain the animal's origin.

Both Stacy and Devin have had some interesting ideas on the subject.

“I don't think it's an alien, but I wonder about that spaceship [Space Shuttle Columbia] that blew up over here. Something might have come out of it, and caused some type of genetic problem,” Stacy theorized.

“Decontamination due to radiation or extreme heat,” said Devin.

Although we didn't find out exactly what this mysterious creature is, at least we know we haven't seen the last of them yet. Both Stacy and Devin agree that there has to be more.

They also want to prove to the small town of Lufkin that Stacy didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

“We're going to get a trap and see if we get it caught,” she said.

We'll let you know what happens.