Reported Sightings of the famed Chupacabra

September 2009, CNN aired a report showing closeup recordings of an unidentified dead animal. The same CNN report stated that locals have begun speculating the possibility that this might be a chupacabras. A Blanco, Texas, taxidermist said he received the body from a former student whose cousin had found the dead animal in his barn, where it had ate poison left out for rodents. The taxidermist believed this to be a genetically mutated coyote.

September 18, 2009, taxidermist Jerry Ayer sold the Blanco Texas Chupacabra to the Lost World Museum. The museum, as reported in the Syracuse Post Standard on 9/26/09, is placing the creature on display as they work with an unnamed university to have the remains tested.

July 2010, chupacabras was reported shot dead by animal control officers in Hood County, Texas. A second creature was also reportedly spotted and killed several miles away. However, an officer of Hood County animal control said Texas A&M scientists conducted tests and identified the corpse as a cross-breed of a coyote and a dog with signs of mange and internal parasites. The second reported chupacabra, shot July 9 about 8 miles south of Cresson, was eaten by vultures before it could be taken for testing.

December 18, 2010, Nelson County, Kentucky, Mark Cothren shot and killed an animal that he could not recognize and feared. Many pictures of the Chupacabra were taken and the story was well documented by various news organizations. Cothren described the creature as having large ears, whiskers, a long tail, and about the size of a house cat. Cothren says he spoke with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and handed over the preserved animal for further analysis.

Another sighting was on July 4, 2011. Jeff Crabtree, of Lake Jackson, Texas, reported seeing a chupacabra in his back yard. At first Crabtree stood firmly on his original theory of the chupacabra, but after the local newspaper and several other media reporters wrote his story on he quickly backed down, agreeing with wildlife experts that it was most likely a coyote with mange. His story appeared on CNN, as well as MSNBC. On July 15, 2011 local authorities caught what Crabtree saw. Experts confirmed that the animal was definitely a coyote with mange.