The unsolved mystery of the Chupacabra

Lately, I’ve been listening to true crime and unsolved mystery podcasts during work and even when I can’t sleep. I’ve listened to solved and unsolved murders from my favorite podcasters “crime junkies” to unsolved mysteries by Ashley flowers podcaster parcast network two of which I highly recommend listening to

There is however one specific unsolved mystery I would like to brush up on and summarize for those who have perhaps never heard of it before, and for those who are familiar with the unsolved mystery and who already have an answer to the origins of the mystery

The chupacabra - translates to “goat sucker” otherwise known as the creature of the night that sucks the blood out of goats, a wild reptilian or “wild dog” that sucks the blood out of farm animals such as a goat and sheep reported from as far away as Puerto Rico to Mexico, and the border with Mexico and the United States

1995, Puerto Rico, the first sightings and reports of the chupacabra happened after hurricane Luis that hit the area. Farmers initially reported loud screeching screams before discovering their farm animals primarily goats, sheep, and even pigs left lifeless without any blood left in them as if a vampiric creature had drained them of their blood. Some sightings have been reported and even investigated about a wild hairless dog creature that could be the culprit according to Mexico reports and in Puerto Rico, It was described as being a “human-like creature with spikes on its back”

It has been suggested the creature is perhaps the result of a secret military animal experimentation that goes from medical experimentation to biological, chemical, and nuclear agents. Reports and sightings of the chupacabra have since spread from Latin America, to the United States and as far as Russia and China

There is a documentary on Netflix which goes further into a potential theory behind the origins of the Chupacabra titled “Top 10 Secrets and Mysteries” series

The 2016 Netflix documentary “Top 10 Secrets and Mysteries” reveals how some locals claimed to have seen US officials capture and scurry the beast away in a van. The apparent actions left some to believe it was a military experiment that had escaped a US base in Puerto Rico during the hurricane. -Express UK

Nonetheless a famous researcher has since disputed the theory of US military involvement by studying the phenomenon over the span of a few years only to conclude the media and political instability in some countries have led people to imagine such sightings and diagnosing the rapidly spreading sightings and mutilated animals as “mass hysteria” but what do we make of the farmers' first-hand experience and reports of mutilated cattle? and what about the corpses farmers discovered and which were later tested resembling no known animal

Scientists have also studied supposed Chupacabra corpses, and they have their own scientific explanation “mange” a skin disease that wild dogs and coyotes have been known to carry and be afflicted by causing hairless patches in the skin of wild dogs which leads to infection and starvation. It is this hairless look which people have described in a chupacabra sighting and even photographed

Can we simply dismiss the accounts to simple “mass hysteria” as one famous researcher suggested... while it’s possible, I’m open to the idea that these sightings and reports are not just a random product of the imagination. I first heard of the Chupacabra a year after I was brought to the United States as a child and I recall the uneasy feeling I felt once while visiting a ranch in Texas thinking an unknown creature could be lurking nearby when sunset began

I recall a few family members and even school friends speak of the Chupacabra and how some of them had thought they heard it during the night. While I didn’t know anyone who witnessed the creature itself nor its animal victims, it’s true many of us have seen and heard wild dogs and thought what if... that were a Chupacabra and not merely a wild dog wandering through the night.