Chupacabra Strikes in Low Pass!

Caprine keepers in Low Pass, Burp Hollow and other communities in the Oregon coast range have long had to be concerned about cougars, coyotes, bears and domestic dogs attacking their animals. Many have livestock guardian dogs, donkeys or llamas to protect the animals; others just make sure the goats are locked up safely each night.

On Mystic Acres Farm last night the livestock guardian dog, Marley, was chained up because he had started jumping fences. This left him in a place where he could warn off predators in the lower barn, but he no longer had access to the upper barn, where eight new goat kids, their mothers and two yearlings live.

When owner Cheryl Smith went to the upper barn on the morning of April 1, she was confronted by a horrible sight. Several of the goats were lying in the barn, looking almost as flat as a pancake. Their gums and eyes were completely white and their bodies were much lighter than they had been the night before. Having read about the Chupacabra previously, she took one of the goats to Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine, where a pathologist confirmed her suspicions: All of the blood had been sucked from the goats!

Whether it had been lurking previously, or just reached the area last night is unknown, but for the first time in Oregon history a Chupacabra is believed to have attacked goats.

Chupacabras are normally found in Mexico, the southwest US or Puerto Rico and survive by biting the neck and the sucking the blood from livestock, particularly goats. The Chupacabra can fly or leap very high. It also is very smart and has the ability to become undetectable. Descriptions of the Chupacabra vary widely with reports that it is either hairless or short-haired, or has coarse black hair; that it looks like a cross between a coyote and a pit bull, or it looks half-human-half vampire beast, or it looks like a cross between a “Grey” extraterrestrial and a dinosaur. The size of this one was estimate to be small because of the small fang-marks and the lack of footprints.

Smith says that she will not be chaining her dog up at night again. She wants to get word out in the community to be on the lookout for this horrid creature. Her final words of advice for those without guardian animals is: Lock your goats up at night!

Happy April 1^st!