A Texas couple believed that they may have captured a living Chupacabra. It actually was a raccoon with mange, however, the raccoon was euthanized Friday.
Jackie Stock and her husband, Arlen Parma, were hounded by PETA and animal rights groups after catching it in a trap Sunday. Stock told TMZ, “I had gotten attached. I was calling him Chupie. He will be missed.”
Stock and Parma originally thought that the animal was the fearsome chupacabra of myth. Chupacabras are hairless and suck the blood out of goats and other livestock. When they thought about other animals, Parma was certain racoons couldn’t growl the way this creature did.
Mike Cox, a spokesman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told NBC, “Our agency does not believe chupacabras exist anywhere but in the imaginations of some.” He also said that chupacabra sightings happen three or four times a year.