A strange dog-like creature rumored to be the infamous chupacabra made an appearance in Picayune Miss.
"If a zombie had a dog, it would look like that," Jennifer Whitfield told WLOX.
Whitfield and her 11-year old son saw the dog hanging out by their home, their neighbors also spotted the mysterious creature.
"I kept looking up 'hairless coyote,' and it kept saying 'chupacabra,'" Amanda Denton said. "We've been running back and forth to our cars because we didn't want the chupacabra to get us."
The chupacabra has woven itself through Puerto Rican folklore (and possibly some real experiences), according to Princeton University. Its name translates to "goat-sucker"because the "animal" has been known to such all of the blood out if its victims, which are usually livestock.
Some believed the Miss. sighting was something else altogether.
"My dad said that it was a 'squatchdog' because he's obsessed with watching 'Finding Bigfoot'," Caroline Cooper, another Picayune resident who saw the creature, told WLOX.
Agents from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks came to the scene, but could not locate the supposed chupacabra.
The agents believe what the residents saw was not a mythical creature, but rather a coyote with a bad case of mange.
"It's probably sick, weak, and not able to hunt on its own, so it's going to the nearest food source it can find," Sgt. David Burnette, said.
This is not the first time a supposed chupacabra has been spotted in the U.S., the Huffington Post reported.
In 2007, a carcass of an animals dubbed the "Texas Blue Dog" was discovered. The animal was bald, had striking blue eyes, and had a strange snout with an overbite.
DNA tests concluded the creature was was a coyote-wolf hybrid.
In Sept. a Miss. man shot and killed what he believed was a chupacabra, but was told the animal was only a coyote with mange.
