Mystery Beast Found in Maine!!!

Hot off the AP press line comes this news of a strange dog-beast hybrid found dead in Maine.

Residents are wondering if an animal found dead over the weekend may be the mysterious creature that has mauled dogs, frightened residents and been the subject of local legend for half a generation.

The full story can be found on numerous newssites, though CBS 4 in Boston seems to have the most complete version.

There's some more great quotes from the story as well:

Michelle O'Donnell of Turner spotted the animal near her yard about a week before it was killed. She called it a "hybrid mutant of something."

"It was evil, evil looking. And it had a horrible stench I will never forget," she told the Sun Journal of Lewiston. "We locked eyes for a few seconds and then it took off. I've lived in Maine my whole life and I've never seen anything like it."

...

Mike O'Donnell, who is married to Michelle O'Donnell, said the animal looked "half-rodent, half-dog" to him.

It was charcoal gray, weighed between 40 and 50 pounds and had a bushy tail, a short snout, short ears and curled fangs hanging over its lips, he said. It looked like "something out of a Stephen King story."

"This is something I've never seen before. It's an evil-looking thing," he said.

Evil, evil looking thing

So first, what is this evil looking thing? Cryptomundo has these photos posted, and people there are hazarding some guesses. It's a good read, though a little disappointing if you got excited by the headline of this blog post. The general consensus is some kind of one-off dog breed, most likely chow, with the possibility of some wolf thrown in.

The more interesting aspect of this story is about the strange creature with evil eyes that has been killing animals in Northern Maine for the past fifteen years, whether or not this dead dog turns out to be that creature.

I found the earliest publication of this story by Mark LaFlamme in the Lewiston Sun Journal. In that article, he writes:

Thirteen years later, dozens of people say they have recently seen or heard an unidentifiable creature in area woods. It began in mid-August when a Wales man reported that an unknown animal crept out of the woods behind his house and mauled his Doberman pinscher.

The animal that killed Duchess the Doberman was never identified.

Since that attack, people from Wales, Litchfield, Sabattus, Greene, Turner, Lewiston and Auburn have come forward to speak of a mystery creature.

It goes on to hazard some guesses, as well as foreshadowing the events of this past week

But some are not convinced that a mere coyote is responsible for the near hysteria over the local creature. They know coyotes, some of them say. And this was no coyote.

Whatever it is creeping around the River Valley region, some people consider it a bona fide mystery. Lake Champlain has its Champy, New Jersey has its Devil. Until someone captures or kills it, the Androscoggin County creature may turn out to be just as elusive.

They know coyotes. Coyotes scoot. This creature didn't scoot.

The story continues with another article by Mark LaFlamme in the Sun Journal.

"There's been talk of a strange animal out here for years," said Steve Theberge, who lives in the Wales area. "They say it stands about 4 feet tall. I hear it's a pretty strange-looking creature."

Theberge is not making this up. His father-in-law has seen the creature. His son has seen it and his wife had an up-close look six years ago.

"This thing, it just hopped over the road and then it stood there," said Brenda Theberge. "It was tan and gray and it had these weird eyes. It was sunset and those eyes were just glowing."

It had the physical characteristics of a hyena, she said. It stood maybe 4 feet tall and it stared with those glowing eyes in a most menacing way. It was almost hairless.

"It was definitely scary to look at," Brenda said. "It was like the size of a pony."

Cryptomundo has a summary of these articles among others in a posting called "Maine’s Dog-Killing 'Hyena'". They have another posting about a year later where they summarize another Mark LaFlamme article on a new wave of attacks.

So in summary, these are pictures of a chow that's been blamed for hyena, fisher, and coyote attacks in northen Maine. Go Werewolf!

Not a real-life werewolf

Real life werewolf? Dude just has a lot of hair on his face. ABC recently sent out a story on Danny Ramos Gomez, who suffers from a condition called hypertrichosis. ABC 7 in Los Angeles has the most complete coverage of the story, though there's a better photo gallery at ABC 13 in Toledo, Ohio.

The traditional werewolf is a man (or chick) who transforms into an actual wolf. It's only the Hollywood mythology, legitimate in its own right, that features these crazy wolf-like monsters, beginning with the Wolf-Man, which, OK, this guy does resemble. But the story ABC printed talks mostly about hypertrichosis, and how it causes excess hair, and not anything remotely wolf-like, or werewolf-like. It even quotes Danny's doctor as saying as much. In fact, Danny worked in a circus as a "wolf-boy", and had to deal with being called similar names in public all his life. Thankfully, ABC made his story public, then proceeded to call him a real-life werewolf and give this introduction to the story:

Who hasn't heard about the legend of the werewolf, the creature whose monstrosity is fueled by the light of the moon, who lurks around in the darkness of night, thirsty for blood? Well, scientists now believe some of those wolf-like characteristics were themselves fueled, not by the moon, but by genetics.

ABC is basically emulating PT Barnum, but with decidedly less interesting graphics. I looked up "wolf" in the dictionary and the thesaurus, and nowhere did it say a wolf was a "dude with lots of hair on his face". Cause that would make for a very dull werewolf movie.