Interview: A man who would kill Bigfoot

J Anderson is free-lance writer for Associated Content who plans on going on a BFRO Expedition soon. Recently he has been in contact with individuals who would favor killing Bigfoot in the name of science.

He writes an interview with one of the individuals with the pseudonym "Dave".

We have a short teaser of the interview below.

Bigfoot: Would You Shoot One?

Published September 10, 2010 by:J. Andersen

I'm excited about an upcoming Bigfoot expedition I will be attending soon with the BFRO in the northern region of the U.S. I always enjoy doing actual field research in addition to blogging about Bigfoot. What I'm also curious about is an invitation I recently received from a Bigfoot researcher who wants to shoot a Bigfoot in the name of science. And he's invited me to tag along. Is this guy crazy?

You might be surprised to know that a small minority of Bigfoot researchers carry out the same fantasy as this man (let's call him "Dave") and they believe the only way to prove Bigfoots exists is to shoot one. I personally don't believe that killing something is the best way to prove it's living, and most fans from www.facebook.com/findbigfoot and other Bigfoot sites would probably agree.

I've also been contacted in the last few months by a man from New York who is willing to hire retired military commandos to go into the field to capture or kill a Bigfoot. It beginning to feel like a techno-thriller Vince Flynn novel or maybe something from the late Michael Crichton (think Jurassic Park)...

It begins by asking the field research habits of Dave field research methods, but then gets into the ethics of killing Bigfoot:

....J. Andersen: Why do you hunt Bigfoot?

Dave: To prove that he/she exists I'm gonna try my hardest not to kill it if I can capture or immobilize it alive I would rather do it that way, but if I have to kill it then so be it. I will do it that way, Ican't say until that day comes.

J. Andersen: How do you plan on doing it?

Dave: The same way any other animal is hunted with a gun, proper camouflage and LUCK.

J. Andersen: Are you concerned with the Ethics of shooting a bigfoot?

Dave: Yes and No, there's no law against hunting Bigfoot where I'm from. Most people hate me for what I'm doing and that's fine but the only way to prove 100% that it exists is by capturing one dead or alive.

J. Andersen: What motivates you to shoot/capture a Bigfoot?

The thrill of being in its element, the thrill of being in his territory, the thrill of the hunt and to prove to the world that Bigfoot exists...

What Dave describes here is a real, growing frustration among Bigfoot researchers. Why can't we capture this thing on good video? With all of our modern technology and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of gear that the Bigfoot community owns, how do Bigfoots continue to avoid camera and thermal imaging? I can't answer that question...

Ho do long-term field researchers feel about the kill no kill debate?

Some serious researchers have been in the camp of killing a Sasquatch. Dr. Grover Krantz and John Green have been known advocates for killing one. On the other hand, more recent voices like Dr Jeff Meldrum, a protege of sorts of Krantz have distanced themselves from the idea of killing. Included in this alternate camp is Loren Coleman, in an 2006 article for Cryptomundo he gave a rational case for the captivity:

The first large unknown hairy hominoid captured will live its life in captivity, no doubt, and there it may be examined internally. MRIs, CAT scans, EKGs, and a whole battery of medical and other procedures may be used to examine it.

It is doubtful the first one will be returned to the wild, so, of course, it will die someday within the reach of future scientific examinations. Then it will be dissected, just as newly discovered animals, including various kinds of humans, have been for further study. But in the meantime, why not study the living animal’s captive and adaptive behaviors?

The days of Queen Victoria, when only killing an animal would establish it was real and not folklore, are, indeed, long gone. --Loren Coleman 2/6/2006

In case you were wondering, we do not think killing Bigfoot is necessary, and we aren't that frustrated that we don't have proof yet. There's enough unsorted data out there, that is still being dissected, to build a better physical and behavioral model of Bigfoot. As we build a better model and share information with each other, we will all eventually have the proof we pursue.


EXTERNAL LINKS
The full Interview with Dave
Bigfoot Civil Rights
Cryptomundo: To Kill or Not to Kill Bigfoot
Bigfoot Encounters: To Kill or Film

Bigfoot in Fresno County

This article is almost 2 years old, but seem to be floating around the blogasphere of late. While keeping our finger on the pulse of bigfootery, we decided to repost this article containing references to Meldrum, and Rugg.

4/25/2008 Fresno, CA (KFSN) -- Whether you want to believe it or not, there are a lot of people in Central California who think they've had a brush with a Bigfoot, or Sasquatch.

Many won't talk about it for fear of being ridiculed. But others are convinced they are real, and think science is about to prove they really do exist.

Lurking in the forests of the high Sierra are people, like Bill Compton. A cell phone salesman during the week, he spends many weekends in search of the elusive Bigfoot. He says," I truly believe there is a bi-pedal primate roaming the terrain. I've seen too many footprints, seen beasts walk away from me on two legs that look like giant, hairy animals."

Bill and his partners regularly search an area in the Sequoia National Forest in Southeastern Fresno County. Bills tells us," In that area we've had a lot of activity, that's why we constantly go back to it." Local hunters and hikers have reported Bigfoot like sightings, along with what they think are the sounds and smells of the creature on the website of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization. 17 alleged Bigfoot encounters are listed in Fresno County. Web sites like this are full of pictures, videos and supposed eyewitness accounts.

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Such stories are no surprise to the Native American tribes living in the Sierra. To them Bigfoot was just like the bear, mountain lions, wolves and coyotes. Ron Goode of the North Fork band of Mono Indians tells us, "We have an understanding that Bigfoot was here, is here. That he once he existed. The Mono's have two names for him. One that was in the mountains, Kooseekoosnow, and then one for the foothills is Kakownow, Kakownah." Goode says he hasn't seen a Bigfoot, but thinks he smelled one. "It had kind of followed me along and really scared the heck out of me because I was running for a little bit and I could smell this thing and it smelled terrible."
Another encounter near North Fork involved not smell, but sound. Susan Larson, an accountant believes she heard a Bigfoot outside her window one night. She says, "The scream was so scary, that you would no way in your right mind go out that door and go looking for it, and it's a shame I didn't have the guts."

Susan says she didn't know she'd heard a Bigfoot, until listening to a recording on a Bigfoot web site. Listening to the sound, "Ooooappp....ooooapp..." She tells us, "That's exactly what I heard."

She later took pictures of footprints she thinks could belong to Bigfoot, or maybe a bear. Casts of footprints, along with pictures, videos and other Bigfoot evidence is on display for all to see at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum near Santa Cruz. Museum owner and curator Michael Rugg says, "We are trying to come up with definitive proof that there are Bigfoot out there."

Rugg has wanted to prove Bigfoot lives ever since he saw one as a kid, while camping with his parents along a creek in Humboldt County. He recalled the incident. "Stepped out on a sandbar and there was a great big hairy man standing there looking at me and I looked at him and he looked down at me." The creature ran off when Rugg's parents called out to him. Rugg says he didn't realize he'd seen a Bigfoot until years later. After retiring as a graphic artist he opened the museum to help further Bigfoot research.

One of the few academically credentialed scientists who will acknowledge the possibility Bigfoot exists is Jeff Meldrum. A biology professor at Idaho State University in Pocatello. His book, "Sasquatch, Legend Meets Science," has been cited in some of the most recent documentaries on Bigfoot. He believes he has almost found a scientific basis for the legendary creature from a site in Ontario, Canada. Meldrum says,"We collected tissue, the remains of blood as well as muscle tissue as well as some hairs." Meldrum explains the creature stepped on a board with screws in it, leaving the flesh behind, giving researchers a sample from which to obtain DNA for testing. He says a preliminary test indicated a feature in a strand of DNA that appeared to put the creature somewhere between a human and chimpanzee.

Meldrum admits much more DNA testing is needed, but, says he thinks there's something out there. He says," Based on all the evidence I have seen it suggests this is an unrecognized species of great ape."

That however, is not a conclusion shared by most of the scientific community. Stephen Lewis is a professor of Earth Sciences at California State University Fresno. A Geologist he teaches a course on popular myths masquerading as science. He puts Bigfoot in the same category as UFO's and Power Crystals. He says, "This whole Bigfoot topic is what can be classified as pseudo science." He adds," There's really no credible evidence that's ever been turned up that a giant six hundred pound hairy, hominid creature, man-like except bigger, inhabits the Pacific Northwest, or Fresno County or anywhere else. There's just no evidence of that."

Many Bigfoot believers say "what more could you need?" They believe the evidence, from Indian legends to eyewitness accounts, along with film and videos is already overwhelming. But even those on Bigfoot's trail, like Bill Compton of Fresno, admit the absolute proof they need may be very hard to come by. He says, "We go to investigate and can't find anything. Very mysterious, it drives us nuts. " But he says, "I truly believe we have them in the Central Valley. Bigfoot's, and it will come out, someday."

The obvious question is, "Why can't anyone seem to find a real Bigfoot, dead or alive?"

The Native Americans believe the creatures live and die hidden underground, in tunnels and caves that run for hundreds of miles through the Sierra, and only come out to feed now and then. Others believe they're just too smart to be discovered. With the sensory skills of wild animals, and near human intelligence, they are presumably, incredibly elusive.

It will take actually finding one to convince skeptics they exist, but as long as there's no way to prove they don't exist, some people will keep looking for and believing in Bigfoot.

Valenti of SasquatchResearch.net Drums up Media

The picture above is Jason Valenti in a bigfoot costume for a film festival commercial. He is also the man in charge of markeing for the Falcon project, a research endeavor to document Bigfoot with the help of 35 foot blimps. If our facebook page is any indication. Most folks in the community are unenthused about the Falcon Project. Not because it is not a fascinating idea, but because there has not been much happening since the project has been announced over a year ago.

Recently, however, the project may be getting some traction. We can only guess this is why Jason and crew have been getting attention from mainstream media. At the Humboldt Beacon, a local news weekly, Jason Valenti has penned the first, in a four-part series. On his website SasquatchResearch.net his short bio is as follows:

Jason Valenti is a resident of Ferndale, WA.
He was introduced to the Bigfoot/Sasquatch phenomenon
in 1996 one spring morning at 4 a,m. in the Appalachicola
National Forest near Tallahassee, Florida. Since that
moment he has been driven to find out more about this
elusive species. He moved from Largo, FL to Bellingham,
WA in 1999. In the 10 years of residency he has
discovered some very interesting areas in the Pacific
Northwest that he frequents with several other
researchers. His research has led him into the same
areas that Lloyd Pye has tapped into and he is in the
process of writing a book and developing a foundation
called Hominoid Research Group for the further studies of
Hominoids.

You can read the Humboldt Beacon article below. If you want our first impression, he seems to tie Dr. Jeff Meldrum's research in the same article as some of Loyd Pye's hominoid theories.

In 2007 there was an incident that took place in the scientific community that created interest of considerable proportion. Most people didn't really notice what had happened, but Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum had struck the anvil of science so hard that the shock waves of his published paper entitled “Evidence for the Existence of North American Apes” will continue to be felt for years to come.
Scattered across the United States at that time were a handful of men who would feel that shock wave, and eventually unite under the same purpose: to find out exactly what the creature is that is mentioned in Dr. Meldrum's paper, and to capture it on film.

What is a hominoid?

Hominoids are what have, up to now, been collectively labeled as Pre-Humans, (post- Miocene Apes). These are the tailless short armed apes that we've all seen in the fossil record, from the Australopithecines to the Genus Homo.

It simply means the family of apes (according to classification) that resemble humans in their ability to walk on two legs instead of four. Outside of that distinction, Hominoids seem to share most of the same characteristics in the family of Hominidea with other apes.

Although the article never mentions Lloyd Pye, the hominoid reference is a pretty strong association to those who know of Jason Valenti.

Fans, you know we think a good theory can come from anywhere, but we wouldn't consider the research of Dr. Jeff Meldrum and that Lloyd Pye to be in the same camp. More specifically there is an extra-terrestrial aspect of Pye's theories.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Falcon Project: A blimp to find Bigfoot
Dr. Jeff Meldrum Explains Lack of Bones

EXTERNAL LINKS
Falcon Project Website: www.bigfoot24-7.com
Humboldt Beacon Article
SasquatchResearch.net
Lloyd Pye Wikipedia Page