Monster Mole!

Dr. Karl Shuker relates the engaging story of the giant mole of Mesty Croft. To think, I used to live only about 4 miles from where this beast resided, but never got to see it! Such are the tribulations of a monster-hunter!

Neil Arnold: A Big Cat Commentary

Neil Arnold (author of Monster! and Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Kent) provides us with an insightful and thought-provoking look at Britain's big-cat controversy:

"I collected my first ‘big cat’ newspaper clipping when I was eight-years old. It was 1982. I investigated my first eye-witness report when I was ten. I would’ve thought that after more than twenty years researching the subject, the age old myths and theories would have been dispelled by now. The reality is, the so-called ‘big cat’ situation, certainly in the UK, is as dull as dishwater. When I first read Di Francis’ ‘Cat Country’ and ‘The Beast of Exmoor’, and also Janet & Colin Bord’s ‘Alien Animals’, I found them dated, despite at the time they were considered refreshing with their theories and coverage. Again, a few decades later nothing has changed.

"With more and more website’s devoted to exotic cat ‘research’ popping up, you’d have thought that the woods of Britain were full of ‘big cat’ enthusiasts. You would’ve also thought that the age-old theories would have been put to bed with so many minds at work. Sadly no.

"There are countless website’s and books, which mention that in the 1960s you could walk into Harrods Dept. Store in London and purchase a large exotic cat. This is indeed true, to some extent. I have records that lion and puma were purchased there, but no black leopards. Now, this doesn’t mean to say such animals were not purchased there, but I’ve read over the years from various ‘researchers’ that not enough people have come forward to admit they owned large cats (but let’s face it, not many people who released animals would come forward), and no receipts have been found etc.

"In the British ‘big cat’ situation, the naivety is astounding, and I truly believe that people are seeking a mystery which just isn’t there. It is a FACT that large exotic cats DO roam the UK. I’ve seen them, I’ve filmed them. Many other people have. But the constant conflict of theories is rather embarrassing to say the least. It’s as if people want these elusive animals to be supernatural, it’s as if they want them to have a origination beyond escapees/releases, but the reality is, the explanation is very simple. The mystery has taken over the mind.

"Earlier in April 2010 I spoke to Harrods archive department regarding receipts etc, to prove that large cats were purchased. Now, apart from the story of Christian the lion, and the occasional other case where press were interested, a majority of sales would have simply been destroyed as regards to receipts and archives. Any member of the public or celebrity who acquired an exotic pet would have been treated with strictest confidence and their sale filed but then destroyed after filling the archives for a few years.

"Harrods were not, and are not responsible for the animals which roam the south-east today. And neither are those alleged circuses which were said to have dumped their animals, and neither are the zoo parks who may have lost the occasional cat. The ‘big cat’ situation will always be a sum of many parts because of the hilarious theories and attitudes of those involved in the research. Sadly, there is nothing enigmatic about as to why such animals roam the UK.

"I’ve just finished my new book, ‘Mystery Animals of the British Isles: London’, and whilst collating evidence I was shocked to find a startling number of incident’s where people purchased large, exotic cats oh so casually. Certainly over the last couple of decades it has been increasingly difficult to purchase a ‘big cat’ although the drug dealers across the United States and South America have proven otherwise as their black leopards and tigers continue to escape into the wilds.

"I thought it would be difficult finding any records of cat attacks on humans, cats escaping, purchases etc, but in fact there was an alarming regularity in the purchases of such animals. Most of these animals, such as puma, were purchased as cute, cuddly cubs. It seems that for every animal purchased pre-1976 (when the Dangerous Wild Animals Act was introduced), many went unrecorded, but thankfully, due to some newspaper archives and my own digging and delving, it proves that a majority of animals seen in the wilds today ARE offspring of animals released back then. And as we know, there are a handful of relatively modern cases of animals escaping or being released (2001 lynx in London, and in 1987, four female pumas and two lynx released into Kent woodlands).

"These kind of situation’s haven’t just gone on for decades, but centuries, and that’s why there are large, exotic cats in the wilds. The Victorian era was a prime time for exotic beasts to be paraded through the streets, fields and in shops. And there exist records of purchases more than a century previous to this.

"We must seek the consistency of reports rather than taking note of the occasional lion, tiger and jaguar sighting. Eye-witness reports must be taken with a pinch of salt when they are inconsistent. Only recently I read of several Kent-based sightings (and more the fool the website owner for putting them up) in which one witness stated, “I don’t know if it was a fox or a panther…”, and another, “..similar to a tabby with a white belly. Slight hint of green in the fur...tail, bushy and same proportion to as a domestic cat”. Sounds to me exactly like a domestic cat I’m afraid. It’s worrying to see such bizarre reports featured on website’s.

"Black leopard, puma, lynx, and jungle cat are the main four species of cat in the UK wilds. Caracal and ocelot also feature but are of a far smaller percentage. However, before we start trudging through the woods looking for exotic cats with green fur, or lions and tigers, we must look at their origin’s to realise that there’s no mystery, and that any mystery created is simply down to bad research.

"I hope my ‘…London’ book will provide the answers, certainly in respect for the south-east. And I believe that if the whole of the south-east can be explained, then surely so can the rest of the UK. Why create prehistoric survivor’s in one county, monster feral cats in another, supernatural demon’s in another, and lions and tiger’s somewhere else when there’s no consistency in this ?

"‘Big cats’ in the UK have become an urban legend because the mystery surrounding them is false. Trigger cam’s litter the countryside because researchers everywhere hope they can find their Holy Grail which, in their minds, will earn them a badge of honour.

"Recently the organisation called Natural England, according to the tabloids, stated that “Big Cats Are A Myth”. Sometimes I wish they were, although when you look at some of the theories and reports which are filed, and method’s used to ‘track’ them, it’s no wonder such animals have been filed alongside UFOs and ghosts.

"In their ‘Alien Animals’ book, Janet & Colin Bord called their ‘big cat’ chapter ‘Cats That Can’t Be Caught…’. I sincerely hope that statement rings true many years from now. However, despite the foggy lore created around these animals, I think it would be more apt updating the chapter title to ‘Cats That Could Be Bought…’, because that’s the answer to it all."

Water-Creatures

Lindsay Selby on the beast of Barmouth...

Linda Godfrey on BoA

This just in from Tim Binnall, who hosts Binnall of America: a 2-hour-plus interview with Linda Godfrey, of Beast of Bray Road and Hunting the American Werewolf fame.

Tim says of the show:

"Acclaimed cryptozoologist Linda Godfrey joins us for a discussion about the phenomenon of Bipedal Canine Cryptids (aka 'Dogman'). We'll cover the recent 'Gable Film' hoax which was revealed on a recent edition of MonsterQuest and Linda will detail the entire Gable saga as it unfolded. We'll then cover the 'Dogman' enigma from a variety of angles, including how Linda first began investigating the phenomenon, the response of the cryptozoology community to her research, the typical descriptions of the Bipedal Canine Cryptids and how they differ from bears as well as 'classic' werewolf descriptions, the connections between the Dogman and water as well as Native American burial mounds, problems with proving the BCC's existence, and tons more material related to the mysterious Bipedal Canine Cryptids. It's a revealing look at a truly unique cryptid with the researcher who helped to put it on the map: Linda Godfrey."

Check it out! Tim's show is always a good one; and this episode is definitely not-to-be-missed!

Holy Giant Cockroaches!!

Jason Offutt relates part-1 of the story of an encounter with a creature of truly Lovecraftian proportions that you most definitely do not want to mess with!

Interestingly, the story Jason tells is eerily similar to one that I was told a few years ago (by a woman from New Mexico), and that I highlighted in my There's Something in the Woods book - one relative to giant, monstrous insects on the loose.

Stay tuned for part-2...!

Japanese Monsters In Print!

Great news: next week sees the publication of Richard Freeman's new book, The Great Yokai Encyclopedia - on the subject of Japanese cryptozoological creatures. This is a huge book - in both size and scope - and most assuredly deserves to be read by one and all! For more details, click here.

Tonight on Bigfoot Quest

From Bob and Mike at Bigfoot Quest:

Hello Everyone

Please join your hosts Bob Coyne and Mike Killen as we welcome Don Keating back to the show. We will be talking with Don about his upcoming 22nd Annual Ohio Bigfoot Conference and getting the very latest updated conference information. If you're able, please join us in our show chat room. It's always a lot of fun and we love to interact live with our listeners.

Where: www.blogtalkradio.com/Bigfoot_Quest

When: Tonight, April 27, 2010

Time: 9:00 P.M. Eastern

Duration: 90 Minutes

Mike Killen
Bob Coyne

Strangely Strange and the British Bigfoot

Take a look at my Reviews of the Fortean Kind blog, where you will find a brand new review from me of Andy Roberts new Fortean title, Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal. Here's the link.

The book includes a detailed and exhaustive study of the so-called Big Gray Man of Ben Macdhui, which is definitive reading for anyone intrigued by the phenomenon of the "British Bigfoot."

Documenting Nessie

A fascinating piece of historical data on the Loch Ness Monster has just surfaced - and here it is!

Crypto and Chernobyl

Lindsay Selby delves into the weird saga of Mothman and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The Night Walkers

J.C. Johnson gives us a look at the trailer of his production, The Night Walkers...

Quitting Crypto

As D.B. Donlon (a.k.a. The Blogsquatcher) says goodbye to the world of Bigfoot research, Loren Coleman comments on the matter and takes a look at other people who have chosen to walk away from the research field.

Something Lurks...

Does a monstrous beast lurk within the waters of Florida? Lindsay Selby investigates...

Trailing the Lizard-Man

Over at Mysterious Universe, the CFZ's North Carolina representative Micah Hanks is hot on the trail of the legendary Lizard-Man...

A Charles Fort Commentary

Anyone and everyone who has an interest in the field of cryptozoology should know who the mighty and legendary Charles Fort was. But, if you don't, now is your chance! Over at The League of Western Fortean Intermediatists, Skylaire Alfvegren has an excellent new post on the man, his life, legacy and much more.

Check it out!

Bigfoot Quest

From Bob and Mike at Bigfoot Quest:

Hello Everyone:

Please join your hosts Bob Coyne and Mike Killen for a special Friday night edition of Bigfoot Quest live in the field from the VA expedition. We will be breaking new ground and making history as we participate in the first ever of its kind cooperative expedition involving 5 different research groups working together for the common good of all. Please join us for this special history making live show as the actual researchers involved give you the update on the latest developments from the expedition. You won't want to miss it!

Where: www.blogtalkradio.com/Bigfoot_Quest

When: Friday April 23, 2010

Time: 9:00 P.M. Eastern

Duration: 90 Minutes

Bob Coyne
Mike Killen

Splintered!

A couple of nights ago, I watched a highly entertaining and atmospheric horror-film titled Splintered. Directed by Simeon Halligan, produced by Rachel Richardson Jones, and starring Holly Weston, Stephen Martin Walters, Sacha Dhawan and Sadie Pickering, it's one I definitely recommend.

Something strange and monstrous is prowling around the fields and woods of North Wales, and violently slaughtering sheep in the process. Sophie (played by Weston) is a teenager with a deep fascination for all-things weird, and persuades a group of friends to accompany her on a road-trip-style quest to learn the truth of the strange creature.

Inevitably, things don't go well, and mayhem, carnage and death follow, as the intrepid team of adventurers seek out the beast. With strong performances from the cast and a definitively spooky setting (the proverbial mysterious, huge, old and deserted building), Splintered is full of all sorts of twists and turns, and keeps you guessing until the very end.

Is some form of vile creature on the loose? What might it be? Animal? Man? Or something else?

I won't spoil the story for you; but if, like me, you watch a lot of horror-films, and also have a deep interest in legends of strange creatures roaming the countryside, you'll definitely enjoy Splintered!

One More From The Anomalist

Also from The Anomalist:

What Is This Bigfoot Business All About? The Blogsquatcher. Given the number of instances in which people have reported encounters with Bigfoot, yet understanding that no undeniable physical proof of the creature exists, what other possibilities for what Bigfoot experiencers report offer themselves? The Blogsquatcher has presented several in recent posts and offers more while trying to get to the bottom of the Bigfoot phenomenon. Elsewhere, Lindsay Selby poses a pithy question for which Dale Drinnon may have an answer in the Comments section: Do Cryptozoological Creatures Smell Terrible?

The Ufological Bigfoot

The Anomalist highlights one of the most controversial aspects of Bigfoot research: namely, a connection to the UFO puzzle (and, as it happens, much more of a distinctly weird nature, too).

As The Anomalist notes:

"Exploring Site 516: Pennsylvania Residents Report UFOs and Bigfoot; Examiner. Tremont Avenue Productions has been working to produce a video documentary of the strangeness that has enveloped mountaintop property in the central section of western Pennsylvania. What has been happening at the location where two related families continue to witness these events seems to be a mixture of paranormal activities that goes far beyond the usual UFO or Bigfoot sighting. In fact, this run of paranormal activity has both those High Strangeness features combined with a possible meteorite strike and a puzzling archaeological discovery made by Carnegie-Mellon University. Producer Roger Marsh and the crew from Tremont Avenue Productions present the first seven instalments of their video creation 'Exploring Site 516' embedded in this article."

In Search of the Nunda

Karl Shuker has an excellent new post at his blog on a mysterious and legendary African big-cat: the Nunda.

Karl begins his article thus: "There is an old, traditional Tanzanian folktale that tells of the Sultan Majnun's youngest son who went seeking a murderous feline monster called the nunda, which had killed his three brothers and many other hapless humans too. Evidently not the most zoologically-knowledgeable of people, he proceeded to kill several different animals, including a zebra, a rhinoceros, an elephant, a civet, and a giraffe, each time mistakenly assuming that this must be the nunda. Eventually, however, he encountered the real nunda, lying asleep under the shade of a tree. As large as a donkey, with distinctive brindled fur, huge claws, and enormous teeth, it was a terrifying sight, but the Sultan's son slew it as it slept, and returned home in triumph, having rid his father's kingdom of this malevolent scourge."

And here's the complete post; which makes for very insightful reading.

Over at the CFZ...

...Richard Muirhead delves into a legendary dragon in Lancashire, England; while Richard Freeman looks at the history of the Basilisk.

Reviewing The Black Dog

Over at his Dark Dorset website, friend Mark North provides us with an excellent review of the latest addition to the "phantom black dog" controversy: Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay: A Case study in Folklore by Dr. David Waldron & Christopher Reeve.

Here's the link to the complete review.

Neil Arnold Invades The USA!

Well, almost! Neil has been a busy guy just recently, with appearances on MSNBC and on Radio Amerika (check the archives of RA for Neil's interview).

Raven's Crypto Haven

Good friend Raven (who is also the CFZ's representative for Michigan) has a new website dedicated to her cryptozoological research, titled Raven's Crypto Haven. Here's the link where you can find all about Raven, the projects she's working on and much more!

Monsters at Lili's Lair

Over at Lili's Lair, you can find a new interview with me about my crypto-research, how I got involved in the mystery, and my thoughts on the overall subject.

As I say in part: "Basically, cryptozoology is the study of, and the search for, unknown animals, such as Bigfoot, the Chupacabras, lake-monsters, sea-serpents, and the Yeti. However, cryptozoology can also encompass the search for known animals in areas where they shouldn't be seen. For example, Britain - where I'm originally from - has a lot of sightings every year of large, black-cats on the loose. Of course, there should not be any such animals roaming Britain. But people see them all the time. So, the mystery is: why are they being seen? That's one of the big questions we have: are they escapees from private zoos? Some cryptozoologists also spend time looking for animals that science tells us are extinct but that may not be so extinct, after all - such as stories of people reportedly seeing surviving pterodactyls. Then, there are those crypto-creatures that - to me, at least - are clearly not flesh-and-blood and that seem more paranormal in nature, but that some researchers place in a cryptozoology category. I'm talking here about Mothman, England's Owlman, the Jersey Devil; things like that. So, cryptozoology definitely covers a lot of diverse areas!"

And here's the link to the full interview.

Beasts of the Water

Today's a bit of a water-monster day: we have this excellent, lengthy new post from Mike Dash that addresses the possibility (in my view, the probability) that giant-eels might explain certain lake monster traditions.

There's also this new piece from Lindsay Selby on the Kelpie of Loch Quoich, Scotland.

And, finally, Richard Freeman reveals his findings on the sea-monster of Pembroke Dock, Wales.

Crypto-Creatures as Tulpas

Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman has an excellent new post on the whole controversy surrounding whether some crypto-creatures may be Tulpas/thought-forms. Loren is right when he says that much of my inspiration on this matter did indeed come from his earlier writings on this matter; such as that contained within Creatures of the Outer Edge (co-written with Jerome Clark).

I was (I think) about 13 when I first read Edge, and it was a book that both fascinated and intrigued me in equal measures and made me look at much of cryptozoology in a whole new light.

And although many of Loren's views on the Tulpa angle have changed and been discarded over the years, it says much about the man that the two of us can hang-out at conferences, agree to differ on some things (but agree on quite a lot too!), but at the end of the day still remain friends.

Big Cat Controversies

Neil Arnold has much to say about the recent statement of Natural England in relation to reported big-cat activity in Britain. In Neil's own words...


Press release from Neil Arnold (KENT BIG CAT RESEARCH) WWW.KENTBIGCATS.BLOGSPOT.COM:

After the statement from organisation NATURAL ENGLAND that all big cats are "a myth", it's interesting to note that in March Kent Big Cat Research received twenty-seven reports of large, exotic cats throughout the county. This suggests of course that either every witness is hallucinating, or NATURAL ENGLAND are completely wrong.
In March 2010 there were sightings from Blue Bell Hill, Lordswood, Densole, Lenham, Canterbury, and Ashford. These mainly concerned reports of black leopard, the most recent coming from a Jules C, who on March 25th at 8:00 am, whilst on a train from Ebbsfleet to Canterbury, stated that, "..on the other side of the tunnel between Boxley and Blue Bell Hill, near train track I saw a big, black cat from a short distance. It resembled a black leopard."

In early March a black leopard was observed by a male motorist, a Mr Wright and his girlfriend, as at 6:00 am they travelled down North Dane Way in Lordswood and saw a big black cat bound towards the undergrowth. Mr Wright was convinced it a a black leopard as he'd seen a similar one in 2000 in Hempstead.

On march 12th a woman named Anne observed a black leopard in a field at Lenham. It was 2:15 pm as she travelled on the M20 London bound and saw the cat which she described as being, "very long in the body".

On March 10th a lady named Eve saw a black leopard whilst travelling on a train between Canterbury and Selling.

Cats such as the leopard use railway lines not only for navigation but of a night they provide perfect food and there is a lot of shelter in these areas.

During the same month there were two sightings of a black leopard made by a Jason Roberts from Reinden Woods in Densole.

In 2010 Kent Big Cat Research has already received seventy-three reports of large cats. On 2nd January a member of an angling society from Marden was walking along a field at 4:15 pm when a big, black cat bounded across the field fifty yards away. The cat was around five-feet in length.

Five days later a Mr Head reported to police a big black cat which he observed whilst sitting on a train at Swanley station at 9:00 am. The witness noticed a creature on the embankment opposite the Kent bound platform. As people began to move along the platform the cat crouched low and had had piercing green eyes.

The following day on the 8th a black leopard was seen at Phoenix Place in Dartford and on the 15th January a Mr Jackson observed a massive black cat at Shottenden. The sighting took place at 2:15 pm as the animal walked into a field around fifteen yards away. On 31st January a black leopard was observed a by a couple in Meopham who were sceptical to such sightings. It was 2:00 pm when they spotted a big black cat in woodland which sauntered off into the woods.

In February 2010 there were numerous sightings around Canterbury and Ashford. A black leopard ran out in front of a vehicle near Wye on the 20th at 6:00pm, there were also several sightings from Sevenoaks of a black leopard. In April there were sightings of lynx from Sussex and Romney Marsh, puma from Canterbury and Dover, and black leopard at Hawkinge, Gravesend, and near Bromley and Bexley.

Maybe NATURAL ENGLAND, if they admit to such animals roaming the wilds, would have to re-name themselves UNNATURAL ENGLAND! Sightings date back across Surrey, Kent, and Sussex to the 1500s. A majority of animals sighted in the countryside are not connected to zoo escapee's as the organisation states. Hundreds of puma and leopards, mainly cubs, were released in the 1960s and '70s and what we are now seeing are their offspring. Also, previous centuries prove that animals escaped and were released from menageries. In 2007 Neil Arnold wrote a 400 page book, MYSTERY ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLES: KENT, a result of his twenty years of research into such animals. Proof that such animals are reported quite regularly across the south-east.

Nessie-X

My latest Lair of the Beasts column at Mania.com delves into the slightly odd realm of government and military files on the Loch Ness Monster; or real-life X-Files, we might say. A strange story, to say the least!

English Big-Cat Encounter

Another big-cat sighting has occurred near to Britain's Cannock Chase woods...

It's A Paranormal World

I'm pleased to announce that from this Sunday (and on every second Sunday of each month from now on), I'll have a 30-minute slot on the Beyond The Edge radio-show (with hosts Eric Altman & Sean Forker) titled It's A Paranormal World, where I'll be discussing my latest research, and what's afoot in general. This week, in part I'll be giving my views on the recent sheep-mutilations in England that have been the subject of much Net discussion.

And here's the link to the show.

The Parafactor Tonight

Tonight, I'll be taking part in a cryptozoological debate on The Parafactor. Also appearing, will be Linda Godfrey, Adam Davies, and Cliff Barackman.

Here's the link for all the data on the show, the time, and much more...

Neil Arnold's Paranormal London

Coming soon is a new book, Paranormal London, from good mate and cryptozoologist, Neil Arnold. As you'll see from the book-info below, it looks to be a great book:

"They say that in London you're never more than five-feet away from a rat...but after reading PARANORMAL LONDON rats will be the last thing on your mind!

"Mysterious 'big cats', phantom assailants, UFOs, high strangeness, Hampstead's spectral ape, ghastly hellhounds, monsters on the London Underground, bizarre beasts, flying jellyfish, ghostly horses, the Highgate 'vampire', hair ripper's and skirt snipper's, buttock slashers and whip crackers, Spring-Heeled Jack, phantom airships, the Devil in Mayfair, raining fish, phantom stone throwers, ghostly bears...many previously unpublished stories, obscure, baffling and weird.

PARANORMAL LONDON....where the weird and wild things are!Coming soon, available from Amazon, and all good book stores...."

And, keep checking here for more information.

Sheep-Mutilations & Sacrifice

Britain's respected newspaper, the Telegraph, has today reported on the discovery of a number of sheep found hideously mutilated in fields in the English county of Shropshire.

It's clear from reading the article - which can be found at this link - that the attacks are being firmly blamed on extraterrestrial visitors. Indeed, reading the article provokes imagery of the notorious "cattle-mutilations" that have for years been reported across the United States and which have also been blamed on bug-eyed aliens.

So, are extraterrestrial butchers now focusing their sights on the ancient county of Shropshire? Well, they might be; however, I urge a word or two of caution. This is not the first time that mutilated sheep have been found in Shropshire under very weird circumstances.

In my 2007 book, Man-Monkey: In Search of the British Bigfoot, I wrote about one particularly notorious sheep-mutilation event that occurred in this very same county back in 1989. The source of the story was a man named Rob Lea, who I interviewed in the summer of 2000.

Rob told me that as a direct result of a macabre incident that had occurred in 1989 on a Newport, Shropshire-based farm that was owned by his family at the time, he had developed a deep and personal interest in stories of animal mutilation.

It was in the latter part of August 1989, recalled Rob, when his father had arisen early one morning to find five of his sheep slaughtered under highly unusual and shocking circumstances: laid out in a circle, all five had had their throats cut, with several of their major organs piled high in the middle of the circle. Thoughts of devil-worship inevitably flooded through his father’s frantic mind, said Rob.

Unsurprisingly, the family quickly telephoned the local police, who promptly came out with surprising speed and filed a report, and quietly urged the family not to give the incident too much publicity under any circumstances. No answers were ever forthcoming, however, and the eerie event was never repeated.

During the course of the interview, Rob surprised me with a true ace that he had been hiding up his sleeve all of this time. He smiled, reached below the table, and produced a black briefcase which he duly placed on to the table-top. From within the confines of a large, padded envelope, Rob pulled out seven, 6 x 4, 35mm, color-photographs that graphically displayed the scene of utter carnage at his family’s farm more than a decade earlier.

In other words, and if nothing else, that part of the story could at least be firmly validated. But that was only the very beginning of things – as I had strongly suspected it might be as soon as Rob told his unusual tale to me.

Rob continued, and admitted to me that when he first began digging into the animal mutilation mystery he was, for a mercifully short while at least, an adherent of the theory that dastardly extraterrestrials just might be at work. As time progressed, however, Rob found that, in many ways, something far more disturbing than alien visitations was afoot.

By the late 1990s, said Rob, he had quietly and carefully traveled the length and breadth of the British Isles in hot pursuit of the answers to the puzzle, and had inadvertently stumbled upon a sinister group of people based near the city of Bristol – that Rob had grandly dubbed "The Cult of the Moon-Beast" – that, he asserted to me, were using slaughtered farm animals and even pets in ancient rites and archaic rituals.

The purpose of those same rites and rituals, said Rob continuing, was to use the sacrificed unfortunates as a means of conjuring up monstrous entities from some vile netherworld, and that would then be dispatched to commit God-knows-what atrocities on behalf of their masters in the Cult of the Moon-Beast.

The story told to me by Rob was a long and convoluted one, and much of it is way beyond the scope of this blog post and has more to do with Bigfoot in Britain than anything else; however, the story can be found in full in my Man-Monkey book. But, unusual killings of sheep by occultists are common-place in Britain.

In October 2005, for example, farmer Daniel Alford of Sampford Spiney, near Tavistock, Devon , made a shocking discovery on the wilds of Dartmoor: namely, six sheep, horrifically slaughtered, with their eyeballs removed and their necks viciously broken. More sinister is the fact that the corpses of the animals had been deliberately laid out, in the form of what was undoubtedly a Pagan symbol, near a series of ancient standing-stones.

Alford was convinced that this was the dark and horrific work of occultists; primarily because this was not the first occasion upon which he had made such a gruesome find. In January 2005, Alford had stumbled upon five sheep, killed in a similar fashion and spread out in a circle, only half a mile away. Interestingly, on both occasions the animal attacks had occurred at the height of a full moon.

Alford said at the time: “This was a sacrifice – they had their necks broken. Initially, when you think of sacrifices you think sharp knives and slit throats. That wasn’t the case here. If they had killed them and taken them, I would have accepted it more. Just to outright kill them and leave them is just a waste.”

And as Alford perceptively and rightly noted: “You wouldn’t just get kids catching sheep like that. Someone’s got to know what they’re on about.” Alford was not wrong: somebody most definitely did know what they were doing, and the attacks were only destined to continue.

Equally of significance is the fact that, in 2006, yet more unsettling sacrifices of sheep on Dartmoor occurred, again near Tavistock, and specifically on moorland at a location called Pork Hill. Once again, the necks of the animals had been broken, and their eyes had been taken. This time, however, there was another disturbing development: the tongues of the animals had also been removed.

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Inspector Becky Wadey commented: “These sheep must have been rounded up on the open moor by whoever carried out this barbaric attack. That would have required a number of people and potentially been quite a spectacle. The bodies were found on open, exposed ground very close to the road, so somebody must have seen something, even if they did not realise at the time that it was suspicious.”

The fact that occultists - and in Shropshire, no less - have been engaged in the sacrifice of sheep for years does not rule out the possibility that ET might really have a taste for lamb. But - even though anomalous aerial lights have been seen in the vicinity of some of the killings in Shropshire - we should not forget that undeniable history of attacks of a very down-to-earth, but no less unsavory, nature have carried out by occultists in this very same county.

In my view, there are some genuinely anomalous animal mutilations. But we don't necessarily have to look to outer-space for the answers. The old traditions of witchcraft, the occult and sacrificial rites may have far more to do with such matters than anything that ET could ever conjure-up.

Lake Monsters

Over at the Fortean Times website there's an excellent new post on lake-monsters, suggesting they may be far stranger than mere unknown animals. Here's the link (to which you may have to register to read the article).

A New Book From The CFZ

The CFZ have just published a new book that may be of interest, and which looks to be as informative as it is entertaining: A Daintree Diary by Carl Portman.

Something Lurks...

Check out the latest from Lindsay Selby: Beware of Stonebow Jaws!

Sea-Creature

Dale Drinnon updates us over at the main CFZ blog on an unusual beast seen off Britain's Island of Hoy in 1919...

Beware the Bunnyman

Good friend Ken Gerhard has an interesting new post all about the legend of the Bunny Man of Virginia.

Ken says: "It’s difficult to conceive of any monsters that might be affiliated with Easter, unless we consider Virginia’s bizarre Bunny Man. Most likely it is an urban legend that may have sprung out of some inexplicable encounters. Irregardless, it is a legend worth repeating. Just west of Washington DC lies the tiny, little hamlet of Fairfax Station. Teenagers from the area are familiar with the rumors of a diabolical being that belongs in a category all its own. According to local historians, during October of 1970, there were several people near wooded areas who, encountered an ax wielding fiend; a man dressed in a bunny suit no less!"

And here's the rest of Ken's post. Enjoy!

Bigfoot and the Paranormal

There's no doubt that when Bigfoot and the paranormal come together, it very often causes heated debate, friction and sometimes even downright hostility in the crypto-field. But, such cases do exist; and so we should surely at least address the data - as I have done in my latest Lair of the Beasts article over at Mania.com.

Giants on the Rampage

What do English buses and books on giants have in common? Well, I'll tell you: you wait for ages for one to come along, then two arrive at once! Okay, it's an old joke, and not a particularly funny one either, but it serves its purpose!

Yesterday, I highlighted the news concerning the forthcoming release (by Anomalist Books) of True Giants: Myth, Legend, Folklore, and Fact, by Mark A. Hall and Loren Coleman.

Well, yet another book on the subject of Giants has just surfaced: The American Goliah, edited and published by Tim Beckley's Global Communications.

I have contributed a section to the book on the weird saga of the notorious Cardiff Giant (photographed below by me in January, at its current resting place: The Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, NY).

The story of the hoaxed Giant is an entertainingly strange one; and one that - as you'll see from my section of the book - is getting even stranger...

On The Track 31

The new edition (31) of the CFZ's On The Track has just been uploaded to You Tube, and is as usual a good one! You find lots of new info packed inside 30 minutes, including a section on Jon and Corinna's recent trip to Texas in search of the infamous Blue-Dogs:

True Giants

This looks to be a very good book coming soon from Loren Coleman and Mark A. Hall: True Giants, to be published soon by Anomalist Books. Keep checking out Cryptomundo and Anomalist Books for news!