'Chupacabra' Leaves Bronson Road Yard

A bizarre-looking animal, believed by some to be the blood-sucking chupacabra, is no longer lurking around the home of a family living in Fairfield's Southport neighborhood.

"We have not seen him since the day after he killed the goose," Kristin Andree, of lower Bronson Road, said Tuesday afternoon. "I don't really like wild animals; I'm not a big fan of wild animals in the yard."

Andree said the animal, which ate the heart out of a goose on July 17 by the Andree daughters' swing, was in their yard again July 18, but hasn't been seen since. She said geese also have returned to their yard, which she took as a good sign that the animal was gone. "I'm hoping that means he's gone," she said.

Andree said the town's Animal Control Department thought the animal's bizarre-looking appearance was due to mange, a disease that causes coyotes and foxes to become sick and lose their hair, but Andree wasn't so sure. "He didn't look to be too sick when he was killing the goose," she said. "Hopefully, he won't come back."

Andree said the animal's tail was what most struck her as unusual because it was so long and slender. Shaun Andree, her husband, described the tail on July 19 as resembling a monkey's tail.

Paul Miller, the town's Animal Control Officer, said Tuesday that coyotes have long tails, though they don't appear that way when they're covered with fur. "Multiple animals are susceptible to mange. It makes them really weird looking without the fur," he said.

The Animal Control Department has received reports in the past of "scaly, reptilian-like animals" that are actually coyotes with mange, Miller said. "People don't know what they are," he said.

Miller said Animal Control officers captured a fox with mange on Arbor Drive in Southport, but that was on July 16, a day before the animal in Andree's yard killed the goose.

Assistant Animal Control Officer Gina Gambino said the fox with mange was a pup and about the size of a large house cat, but heavier. She said it had a long tail and a considerable amount of hair, though it was balding. She said the fox pup was part of a family of foxes and that the mother, who's been sighted but not captured, had bad hind legs.

Miller said the department's received five calls since July 15 about coyotes or foxes with mange in Southport.

But animals with manage are not only in Southport. Animal Control officers responded to a report Tuesday morning of a hairless dog on the Mill Plain Road entrance ramp to Interstate 95 but the animal was gone when they got there. Miller said that animal was likely a coyote with mange and not a hairless dog.

Shaun Andree said on July 19 that Cristin was frightened by the animal in their yard and had him walk her to her car and didn't want their daughters to play outside. Cristin said she has since let her daughters play outside, though she likes them to stay close to the house.

Miller said Animal Control officers would go to the Andrees' house if the bizarre-looking animal returns. He said coyotes and foxes with mange can be dangerous but only because they will go after food sources they normally wouldn't, such as bird seed in bird feeders or cat food left by people's houses.

Shaun Andree snapped photos of the animal as it was killing the goose and also as it was in his yard and posted the photos on Facebook, where 25 of 35 people who commented said it was the legendary chupacabra, a mythical blood-sucking animal that some believe to be real.