Devin McAnally's farm is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio where
he killed and photographed a strange animal on Memorial Day weekend, May 29-30, 2004.
Farm Memorial Day Weekend 2004
Unidentified animal photographed by Devin McAnally about six hours after he shot the creature, no blood.
Described as about 20 inches tall, 30 inches long with 3-inch-long, thin, fangs that extended downward from
upper jaw and overlapped with 1.5 inch fangs protruding upward from lower jaw. (Not visible in photos.)
There are spots on the hide and sparse hair as described by eyewitnesses in Puerto Rico of the alleged
"chupacabra goat-sucker" there. Digital photograph © 2004 by Devin McAnally.
This week I asked Terry DeRosa, a spokesman for the San Antonio Zoo about photographs of the Elmendorf, Texas creature. He said it was definitely not a coyote, but he didn't know what it was based only on the photos. So far, no forensic or DNA analysis has been done by anyone.
This week I also reached the Elmendorf farm owner who shot the creature. His name is Devin McAnally, now retired after teaching English and coaching basketball in high schools for 41 years. First he lived and worked in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Later, he moved to San Antonio and then out to the remote farm land about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio five miles downstream from where the San Antonio and Medina Rivers join together.
In the second week of May 2004, Mr. McAnally found about forty of his chickens killed. First Devin suspected a wild dog. Then one morning, an alarm came from his own little long-haired terrier.
Interview:
Devin McAnally, retired high school English teacher and basketball coach who now farms in Elmendorf, Texas: "I heard her (terrier) barking a very unusual bark. If you've had a dog for very long, you recognize what their barks are about. So, I looked out the window, and there was this little odd-looking animal about 20 yards away eating mulberries under a tree. She (creature) totally ignored the dog as if she weren't screaming at her.
I thought at the time it might be an abandoned greyhound pup. I had found two a couple of miles down the road from me and they had starved to death.
COULD YOU DESCRIBE THE COLOR AND THE SIZE?
The color is about a light Weimeraner color. And the size was about 20 inches tall, about 30 inches long and about 20 to 25 pounds in weight.
Weimeraner dog.
NOW, WHEN I THINK OF THAT PARTICULAR WEIMERANER DOG, I THINK OF IT AS BEING MORE GREY THAN TAN OR BEIGE?
Right. Definitely. It was a blue-grey.
BLUE-GREY. COULD YOU SEE ANY HAIR OR SPOTS ON IT?
The only thing it had very smooth skin. There were no mange eruptions or anything like that. The only hair on it was a very neat, evenly patterned one-inch-long on either side of its spine. The feet were barely bigger, the paws, than my thumb. I could not believe it could stay balanced on them.
SO, VERY TINY.
Very tiny.
WHAT DID YOU SEE SPECIFICALLY IN THE MOUTH REGION OF THIS CREATURE ON YOUR PROPERTY?
Just that the muzzle was very sharp, very long and pointed.
COULD YOU SEE ANY FANGS HANGING OUT OF IT?
You bet. You can't see it in the photos. They have one fang on either side, a canine, that is about 3 inches long and extends outside the jaw.
THREE INCHES LONG.
About three inches long. Then they had a counter thing coming up from the lower jaw outside the jaw that met up and matched with and fit into the upper fangs. And they were about half that size.
SO, THE UPPER FANGS WERE THREE INCHES LONG AND THE LOWER ONES WERE ABOUT 1.5 INCHES LONG.
That's correct.
THE DIAMETER WOULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT HOW MUCH?
I don't know, maybe a quarter of an inch.
BECAUSE THAT MATCHES VERY CLOSELY TO WHAT A VETERINARIAN IN PUERTO RICO FOUND IN RABBITS IN WHICH HOLES EXTENDED FROM BELOW THEIR JAW UP TO ALMOST THE BRAIN CAVITY. THREE INCHES LONG BY ABOUT A QUARTER OF AN INCH WIDE. HE SAID IT LOOKED LIKE A SODA STRAW.
That's the way this looked.
WHAT WAS IT THAT BROUGHT YOU TO SHOOT HER?
I felt like the second and third time I saw it that it was going back to the scene of the crime.
TO THE CHICKENS.
It would have been very close to that chicken house.
AND DID YOU THEN SIT IN WAIT WITH YOUR GUN?
Yes, I did.
Animal Died Without Sound or Blood
It died very strangely. It just slumped over when I shot it. It did not make a noise. I never saw any sign of blood, even after I walked up to it and saw how odd it was at a closer distance. I put three more bullets in it. Never bled.
THAT'S PECULIAR.
I never saw any blood.
WHERE DID YOU SHOOT IT?
I shot it under the same mulberry tree. The fourth time I saw it, I shot it.
WHERE ON THE BODY DID YOU SHOOT IT?
I have no idea. I was about 20 yards away.
BUT YOU APPROACHED IT TO TAKE THE PHOTOS?
Yeah. About 5 or 6 hours later, I was over at another rancher's house helping them trim some trees and I was telling the lady about it. They are very science oriented, too. She told me to take her digital camera and go back and take pictures or people would not believe me. I'm glad she did.
SO YOU DIDN'T WALK UP TO EXAMINE THIS ANIMAL RIGHT AFTER YOU SHOT IT?
No closer than ten yards.
BECAUSE?
It didn't have any hair on its body. I didn't want to get something that was contagious. It didn't move. And I thought, you know, I've shot many a opossum that was killing my chickens. I thought, if it's playing opossum, it's going to get some more bullets. I never saw any blood. Later on when I took the pictures, I used a long-handled shovel and turned it over two or three times to get different angles.
AND YOU STILL DIDN'T FIND ANY BLOOD ON IT?
No.
Above and below, two more images that Devin McAnally photographed after he turned the animal
from its right side over to its left and then on its stomach to show the back more clearly. On either
side of the spine, hair is visible. Digital images © 2004 by Devin McAnally.
THE PHOTOS SHOW CLEAN HIDE.
I didn't see where the bullets went in, either.
WAS THERE ANY REACTION ON THE PART OF THE ANIMAL TO INDICATE THAT THE BULLETS HAD IN FACT HIT IT?
It just slumped without making a sound. Just slumped to the ground right where it was. I saw no movement and heard no sound.
THIS IS REALLY PECULIAR, ESPECIALLY IF YOU COULDN'T SEE BULLET HOLES.
Yeah.
A Pregnant Female? Is There A Male Nearby?
This was a young female and it was pregnant.
THE ONE YOU KILLED?
Yes.
SO, WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS IF THIS WAS A PREGNANT FEMALE, THEN THERE MUST BE A MALE SOMEWHERE?
I'm presuming.
HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS FEMALE AND PREGNANT?
Oh, it was obviously female. There was a paunch to the belly. And it tucked way back toward the uterus.
WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THIS CREATURE THAT YOU THOUGHT WAS OBVIOUSLY FEMALE?
It looked the same way a dog does under its tail.
MEANING THAT IT HAD A VULVA?
Yes.
NOT BREASTS, THOUGH?
Yeah, I saw teats. That's why I thought it was a young female because the teats were not developed.
IS IT PRESERVED SOME PLACE SO SOMEONE COULD DO DNA ANALYSIS?
I let the fire ants take a lot of the problem away. Then I buried it.
SO, THERE IS NO CHANCE OF GETTING DNA FROM IT?
Are you kidding? They can DNA from the hide or from the remaining tissue.
I'M CURIOUS WHY YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TRIED TO GET THAT INTO SOME KIND OF REFRIGERATOR OR SOMETHING?
My freezer was full of wild pig and wild deer. We were making tamales for a church sale. So, I wasn't about to go to a neighbor and say, 'Can I use your freezer for a dog that might be contaminated?'
WHAT IS IT THAT YOU THINK THIS COULD BE?
The lady who was interviewed in the store said it looked like a chupacabras that her grandmother had described to her from Mexico. There is a hairless dog in Mexico to this day and from all indications, it probably came from the wild. The Indians of northern Mexico told a story about the first settlers that there was a wild dog they called a long name, Xoloitzquintle.
Xoloitzquintle, Mexican Hairless Dog
Xoloitzquintle, Mexican Hairless Dog, from Mexico. Aztecs considered these dogs
representative of the god "Xolotl," whose task was to accompany the souls of the dead to their
eternal resting place. Aztecs prized the hairless dogs' flesh and ate them.
SO YOU'RE SAYING THAT MAYBE WHAT HAS SHOWN UP ON YOUR PLACE, THAT IS SO REMOTE IN ELMENDORF SOUTHEAST OF SAN ANTONIO, COULD BE SOME KIND OF GENETIC THROW BACK TO THE ANCIENT HAIRLESS DOG THAT LIKES TO ATTACK CHICKENS?
Exactly.
COULD YOU HAVE WRAPPED THIS THING IN A TOWEL AND PUT IT IN YOUR TRUCK AND DRIVEN IT TO THESE PEOPLE?
No.
BECAUSE?
Because I didn't want to get contaminated if it had some strange disease. But in about 30 minutes, I called and left a message on the phone line with Texas Game and Wildlife. They never called me back.
REALLY.
Yeah, and I described it fairly well over the phone message. Two other people were approached later by friends of mine and a relative. Then another Fish and Game and Wildlife man and a couple of zoo workers. And they all said it was a dog with mange.
I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN IS THAT EVERYBODY YOU TALKED TO IN AN OFFICIAL CAPACITY SEEMED TO LACK ANY CURIOSITY ABOUT TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT IT WAS.
Even worse. Almost like resentful that they were presented something that didn't fit their preconceived ideas. If they couldn't put it in a pigeonhole they already had, they didn't want to talk about it.
HOW DO YOU ANALYZE THAT?
I think that's just how scientific people become the victims of their own attitudes. They become very institutionalized and they are not curiosity seekers which is probably what started them on that line of profession in the first place.
DO YOU THINK THAT YOU COULD POSSIBLY BUILD SOME KIND OF A TRAP IN WHICH YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO CAPTURE ALIVE THE POSSIBLE MALE?
Well, I doubt it for this reason. I have been trying to trap wild pigs for quite some time. I've been using a type of bait they advertise that no animal can resist. The wild pigs, I couldn't catch. They got very they are very intelligent. And I have a fairly good sized hard trap. I tried catching this animal that I shot half a dozen times (using dead birds as bait). No takers. It seemed disinterested in dead birds actually. With a hard trap, you can't put a live bird in there.
SO THE ANIMAL IS PROBABLY QUITE INTELLIGENT.
Exactly."
More Information:
Strange animal seen and photographed in Glyndon, Baltimore County,
and Joppa, Harford County, Maryland.
Glyndon, Baltimore County, Maryland - Summer 2004
The following are a series of video frames provided by WBAL Channel.com after its interview with Jay Wroe, a Glyndon, Maryland, resident who has seen a strange animal for more than a month near his house and videotaped it. Another resident, Kim Carlsen, told WBAL-TV, "It comes to our house. It's been up in the woods for a while and it comes up through the bottom of our yard and eats our cat food. It's not afraid of the cats and the cats seem to get along with it fine." Kim says the animal comes most often in bright daylight. Eyewitnesses have started calling it a "hyote" - a combination of a hyena and a coyote.
This series of video frames was photographed in summer 2004
by Jay Wroe, Glyndon, Baltimore County, Maryland.
Joppa, Harford County, Maryland - Summer 2003
Lisa and Jon Mathis live out in rural Joppa, Harford County, Maryland, where there are normal farm animals. But no one had seen anything like the animal that stopped at their water trough to drink last summer in 2003. "It looked like something out of Lord of The Rings," Lisa Mathis told WBAL-TV. Lisa photographed the creature for the family and that would have been the end of it until the recent news story about the same type of creature in Glyndon.
Officials at Maryland's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said it's "a red fox with sarcoptic mange. ...If we had an animal that was acting in a way that would put people in danger, we would respond immediately." The only way to find out what the animal is would be to trap it and DNR says it won't do that unless it's a known threat.
Strange animal drinking at water trough on Lisa and Jon Mathis's property in Joppa,
Harwood County, Maryland, a year ago in the summer of 2003. Photograph © 2003 by Lisa Mathis.
Vulpes Vulpes, red fox.
Websites:
http://www.hund.ch/rasse/xolouk.htm
http://www.floodlight-findings.com/2redfox/redfox.html
http://www.qsl.net/w5www/chupacabra.html
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