What the heck is a chupacabra?



(Church Mosaic, 1213 AD)

Caution:  Do not begin this inquiry at mealtime, especially if goat cheese is on the menu. 

The literal translation of “chupacabra” comes from the Spanish words for “goat” (cabra) and “to suck” (chupar).  Together that spells “goat-sucker.”  This does not refer to the sucking of a nanny goat’s milk by her kids.  Instead, it refers to the sucking of any

goat’s blood by this alleged “hairless dog-like creature.”  Goats have not been the only such victims.  Wikipedia reports that in March 1995, “eight sheep were discovered dead, each with three puncture wounds in the chest area and completely drained of blood” in Puerto Rico.  Shortly thereafter, also in Puerto Rico, “as many as 150 farm animals and pets were reportedly killed” in a similar manner.

Since then, there have been chupacabra sightings from Maine to Chile, as well as in Russia and The Philippines.  Why just the other day, workers taking a smoke break outside of a Maryland hospital claimed to have cozied up to a chupacabra-like creature.  NBCWashington.com quoted one x-ray technician as saying:  It’s a kangaroo, dog, rat mixed.  It’s got a rat tail and a head like a deer.  I don’t know what it is.

That last statement is heard all too often.  Since no one seems to really know for sure what it is they’re describing, the tendency is for mainstream science to doubt or deny the existence of such “mythical beasts.”  Chupacabras are therefore put into the category of unicorns and dragons.

Unicorns, however, are mentioned a number of times in the Bible.  The 1611 Authorized King James Version refers to unicorns in Numbers 23:22, in Psalms 22:21, in Deuteronomy 33:17, and in Isaiah 34:7 (to name a few).  Dragons, too, inhabit biblical pages.  Wikipedia reports that in the New Testament “the Devil takes the form of a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, in his battle against Archangel Michael.”

So... who’s to say what’s really out there?

Resources

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44159491/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/t/new-chupacabra-mystery-animal-confounds?gt1=43001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon

http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611-Bible/

Copyright August 16, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved