Chupacabra. Peru

Locals blame aliens or chupacabra, and the authorities tried to "explain" everything after the investigation, but this attempt only caused confusion among the terrified population



At the end of August, a mysterious incident occurred in one of the rural areas of Peru, as a result of which 33 adult sheep and a lamb were mercilessly killed. The authorities immediately blamed the cougar for the murder, while locals pointed to the infamous chupacabra and even aliens. The events unfolded on the night of August 29 in the province of Chincheros, in the Okobamba region, where two farmers found their sheep killed in a gruesome manner.



Emelia Ruiz Santos, one of the farmers, found 16 of her sheep dead on the ground near her paddock. Each sheep had a deep hole in its head, and the lambs had their eyes removed. Another farmer, Segundina Quispe de Palomino, faced a similar tragedy after discovering 14 of her sheep killed in the same horrific way. The sheep also had their rectums removed, which made the incident even more grim.



Following complaints from farmers, Okobamba Police Station officers and civil defense representatives from Okobamba Municipality arrived at the scene. The National Agricultural Health Service (Senasa) was involved in assessing the condition of the carcasses and determining the cause of death. The mayor of Okobamba County, Henry Vilchez Arango, expressed his shock at the incident, saying that it greatly disturbed the local population.



As the news of the massacre spread through the village, various theories arose among the residents. Many blamed the chupacabra, a mysterious predator that attacks animals and sucks their blood. Others drew parallels between the incident and the cattle killings, noting similarities such as the removal of eyes and anus from the animals' bodies.



Senasa representatives conducted an examination of sheep carcasses and concluded that the cause of death was not a disease, but an attack by a wild animal, most likely a cougar. They noted traumatic brain and anal injuries in the lambs, as well as eye damage, possibly caused by aggression or external injuries of the cougar. Although cougars are indeed found in the area and have previously attacked local pets, puncture wounds in the sheep's skulls have raised questions. As a rule, after a cougar attack, there are visible traces of claws and fangs, which in this case were absent.



Interestingly, Senasa representatives did not provide an explanation of how a cougar or any other local predator could extract a sheep's brain through skull punctures. One of the experts even suggested that the wounds could have been inflicted by dogs. In addition, four adult sheep were found neither alive nor dead, which gave rise to the assumption that "wild animals dragged their bodies into their lairs."



After the inspection, the corpses of the slaughtered sheep and lambs were buried in a separate sanitary burial ground. The incident shocked the local population, many are still looking for answers to their questions and adhere to their own theories about what happened on that fateful night.