A Voucher Specimen

[#59]

The pro-kill versus no-kill advocates debate has raged for years with no end in sight.

In recent weeks one organization, Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy (TBRC) a true 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization had it's chairperson, Alton Higgins issue a statement regarding this topic.

Basically, while espousing the organization's position of neutrality on the subject, Professor Higgins declared his personal view that a voucher specimen be obtained.

While I understand the purely scientific viewpoint on this idea, let me offer up a couple of thoughts.

First, those advocating such a position are almost exclusively in the camp of having never had a FTF event.  Those that have been fortunate enough to experience such have offered explanations including the fact such a prospect might be perilous to the shooter's own health & well-being.  However, a rather common observation is simply that when the FTF encounter occurred, the face looked too human for the trigger to be pulled.

Therefore, to those of the mindset a voucher specimen should be obtained whether purely for science or personal fame and fortune, let me offer up a paraphrase of a passage from a book some of you may be familar with:  ..."for what does it profit a man to gain the world, lest he lose his soul in the process"... ?

We will all be remembered by our last, worst act.

[#59]

As a companion to the above post, let me also offer this:

As you stand over the still warm corpse with the presumption that you are a decent human being, not some desperate fool and, when in the moment, all the previous rationalizations you had so constructed come crashing down upon you and the realization of what just transpired takes set....what will you now do?

[Bullet Maker]

I agree 100% with you #59. I have had a couple of FTF (face to face), encounters, and it was no picnic. It was a surreal moment. I will expound on it, in another post.

[Ray Ford]

Since I've never had a face-to-face encounter with a bigfoot, I can't really say what I would do if I did.  I can understand the desire to get a "voucher speciment"--I think--but, unless I, or someone else, was in real danger from one of the big hairy guys or gals, I would be very reluctant to take a shot.  And then there is the matter of my own personal aversion to killing anything: I have killed, but I'ver never enjoyed it--except for ticks and fleas.

I don't think a bigfoot would be something I would consider eating, and I'm not much into trophy mounts.
So, why?  If I saw one, it would answer my questions about whether they actually exist or not, and I have no interest in proving that to someone else--not really.

[#59]

It appears this situation may have provided the initial substantative evidence for the basis of forensic determination of the existence of UHS.  As Dr. Wallace often opined about the death being the result of a teenage squirrel hunter, he wasn't far off from an adult bear hunter.

http://www.cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/erickson-project-news-4/

If this story holds up, another chapter in the downhill slide for UHS will have been written for once mainstream science/society accepts their existence, it will be all over but the shouting. 

[#59]

TBRC 2011 Honobia Incident

The following narrative is self explanatory:

TBRC Website wrote:
Statements made or reported as being made by Honobia, OK, resident Charles Branson at the Honobia Bigfoot Festival on 1 October 2011, concerning incidents that took place the previous July, contain inaccuracies. The basic facts are as follows.

The TBRC was on Mr. Branson’s property with his permission as part of Operation Endurance (OE). The group in place at the beginning of July, designated as the “Echo” team, was the fifth of ten teams to participate in OE. Subsequent events experienced by that team are referred to as the “Echo Incident” within the TBRC.

On 3 July 2011, at approximately 6:15 PM EDT and under clear daylight conditions, Daryl Colyer, Board Member and Field Operations Director of the TBRC, encountered a sasquatch on the Branson property. The observation occurred as he, along with fellow TBRC members Alex Diaz and Travis Lawrence, were investigating a loud banging sound originating from the direction of one of the hunting cabins (referred to by the TBRC as the "West Cabin"), not far from where they and one other member of Echo team were based. The sound was consistent with others heard over the duration of OE and suspected of having been made by sasquatches.

Colyer moved down the path toward the West Cabin with Diaz following at fifty or sixty feet. Lawrence was out of their sight as he followed a nearby parallel creek bed. When Colyer rounded a bend in the road and entered a clearing in front of the West Cabin, he witnessed a large, brown, upright, hair-covered figure walking in front of him at a distance of roughly 25-30 yards. Colyer noted it had long hair on its shoulders and the back of its head, which was distinctly conical in shape. He saw it from the left side and slightly to the back; its front was not visible to him at any point. Upon later comparison with a 6'3" tall TBRC member, the creature was estimated to have been both more massive and somewhat taller.

Walking to the south, the creature was momentarily obscured by vegetation and was then visible through an eight to ten foot opening in the dense foliage, still approximately 25-30 yards from Colyer’s position. Using his Remington 1100 Tac-4 12 gauge auto-loading shotgun, loaded with 000 buckshot followed by slugs, he attempted to collect the animal for scientific analysis, firing all the rounds in rapid succession. Colyer then approached the spot where the animal had been, reloading as he walked, but found no body. Within a few seconds he heard the faint sound of an automobile engine starting. When Diaz arrived at the location of the encounter, Colyer directed him to investigate the automobile sound. Diaz found a container of iced tea on the ground approximately 50 yards down the path, but he could not determine a source for the engine noise.

All four members of the Echo team attempted to track and locate the animal until it was too dark to see. Although the ground in the area was covered with leaves and other debris, the trail left by the animal was evident until it reached the nearby rocky creek bed. There were clear signs of its travel through the forest, including where it stepped on and crushed a fallen branch that was left unharmed when stepped on by the TBRC investigators. The slugs Colyer fired were all found embedded in trees near where he saw the animal. The team was unable to find any other evidence of the animal or its fate before losing daylight.

The team departed for home the next morning. Shortly after reestablishing cell phone coverage, Mr. Branson contacted the team and informed them that his nephew and his nephew's girlfriend had driven to the site the previous day. The nephew left his truck parked at the property gate and had begun to walk up the path toward the cabins when he heard what he mistook to be machine gun fire. He ran back to his truck and fled the area, apparently damaging his truck in the process. Colyer never saw or heard the truck prior to its departure, nor did he see or hear the two people. Their position, relative to Colyer's, was to the west through the dense forest, while the animal Colyer was attempting to collect was to his southwest. Neither they nor their vehicle was ever in the line of fire.

Following the conversation with Mr. Branson, team members made contact with Branson's son, a deputy sheriff in the area, and related the events to him. He advised contacting the County Sheriff's Office, since the nephew had reported that he had been shot at with a machine gun by "druggies." After communicating with the sheriff's office twice, the matter was dropped. Upon learning of the damage to his truck, said to amount to $1200, the TBRC offered the nephew $2,000 to help offset the cost of repairs. The check was cashed a few days after it was sent. Following a break of approximately one week, the TBRC resumed Operation Endurance to its planned completion.

In December of 2010, TBRC Chairman Alton Higgins clearly stated on the TBRC web site that the organization would "not stand in opposition to individuals—within or outside the TBRC—or groups supporting and/or actively pursuing efforts to obtain a specimen." He went on to add, "As a field biologist I have always indicated that I supported collecting a specimen for documentation and study." He went on to explain, "Biologists are trained to think in terms of, and to care about, populations. Collection of a voucher specimen is a way of protecting the population, from my perspective. It is not immoral, even if there are those who disagree for various emotional reasons." Those interested can read the position statement in its entirety here. (Posted as the next post)

The TBRC plans on publishing a more complete account of Operation Endurance at a later date. *

There is another (Oklahoma based) BF organization engaging in a bashfest of this incident however, they are apparently omitting the details of their own "hunt" conducted shortly after that time period.  It has been alleged they even brought in a professional hunter (PH) from Iowa for the deal.

*  http://www.texasbigfoot.com/index.php/news/news/48-news/204

[#59]

Also:

http://www.ghosttheory.com/2011/10/25/bfro-armed-with-ak-47-shoots-at-bigfoot

I'm hearing that at least some of the shooter(s) were allegedly from another (Oklahoma based) BF organization and claimed BFRO affiliation as a cover?

[#59]

With TBRC's Operation Endurance latest fiasco it appears they are again running around the woods in the Kiamichi's spraying lead (OOO buck) left and right.

A few things come to mind:

Buck shot is not legal ammunition for any hunting season in Oklahoma.

How would they explain this to LEO if the situation arises?

Do they possess any particular licenses that would allow for possessing (and firing) buckshot in Oklahoma?

How do they know what was shot (and left a blood trail) wasn't a human?

After all, it was bipedal (per their own words) and exactly what walks on two legs in the woods of Oklahoma other than humans?

How do they know they didn't shoot somebody?

What if their DNA analysis says so?

Will they be sending another $2,000.00 check to someone?

These (TBRC) people know the clock is ticking closer and closer to the day when such antics will be irrelevant and totally illegal.

Probably have a window of ~90 days.

Desperate people will do desperate things.  

[Bullet Maker]

What were they thinking?. I can`t believe, they would be so dumb. Sounds to me like they want to be the first kid on the block, with a bigfoot on the ground. Forget about collecting a blood sample, you shoot anything with 000 buck, and it`s going to blow a arm off, and that`s the end of that creature, or any creature, that`s gets hit with 000. I am an avid reloader of shotgun, rifle, and handgun ammunition, so therefore, I know what I`m talking about. When the TBRC say`s there out to collect a blood sample, there blowing smoke. There out to kill, pure and simple.
    No wonder, people will not come forward and tell of there sightings of Bigfoot, for fear of people and other Bigfoot organizations as the TBRC, that might come to there neck of the woods, and try the same thing.

 

[#59]

What's also disturbing is one of the principals of this organization is a tenured member of the faculty of a "christian" university in Oklahoma.

Perhaps, their fight song:

Onward Christian Soldiers, marching off to (the woods) "war"
Seeking the corpse of bigfoot, for fame and glory evermore...

BTW, remember the section in the bible that makes reference to when angels looked down upon the women of earth and found them desirable?

And they would say that thousands of years of Native American legend and lore is nothing more than the rationalizations of "uncivilized" people. 

I would submit that you keep this in mind in the coming weeks.

Perhaps, some of these so-called "christian" glory seekers are thinking they're after the spawn of Satan?