Blood-Sucking Chupacabara on the Loose Near Houston

CONROE, Texas -

Could a blood-sucking chupacabara be on the loose near Houston? A Panarama Village man thinks so. He said he and a friend snapped photos of one running along the roadway on League Line Rd near Hallmark Dr. as they were driving to work Thursday morning.

“They're a little blurry because we were still trying to move and that thing was running down the fence line,“Justin Farris said, “and we wanted to get it before it went, and all of a sudden right off League Line, it went off into the brush.”

Farris describes himself as a “chupacabara hunter.” He said since 2008 he's spotted four of the animals.

“This is the second one we've gotten on camera. My buddies at work, they couldn't believe we got him on camera,” Farris said.

The name “chupacabara” is Spanish for “goat sucker,” a predator said to exist in parts of Latin America that supposedly attacks animals, especially goats, and drains them of blood.

Before the first sightings in Puerto Rico in 1995, no one ever claimed to have seen one.

There have been thousands of alleged sightings since since then, but none has ever been verified.

But along with the photos snapped Thursday, Farris has a picture of an animal he claims is a chupacabara that he shot in central Texas seven years ago.

We showed the photograph to Susan Schmaltz, a wildlife rehabilitation expert and director of the Wildlife Center of Texas, where thousands of injured abandoned animals are rehabilitated each year. Schmalz identified the animal in Farris' 2008 photograph as a coyote. Asked if the Wildlife Center has ever treated a chupacabra, Schmalz said, “No, no, we don't have those here, they're mythical really.”

Farris said he knows the existence of chupacabras has never been proven, but said he is convinced both animals he photographed are the real item.

"I said I believe it is a chupacabra, so until it's proven different, that's what I will believe. “ Farris said.

“There's a lot of things you just have to have some belief in, have some faith in.”

-Click2Houston