On the Prowl
Sasquatch and other furry Bigfoots
by Bernadette Calonego
Published in the newspaper Northern Pen
A few days ago, I inadvertently gave a fright to an American tourist. I was hiking with my neighbour`s dog Buddy on the Cape Raven trail just outside Straitsview, when it happened. I came around a bend, and a few meters away, a wide-eyed, open-mouthed woman stared at me. “I thought you were a moose”, she gasped.
Under normal circumstances, it would not be exactly a compliment! Not least because I am used to taking pains not be mixed up with a moose. Especially in the fall, it is a matter of survival when giddy hunters hide in the bushes. So I make sure to wear colourful hats and scarves and yellow Helly Hanson rain pants.
The American tourist had heard of moose in the area, and that is why the sudden appearance of a dark shape made her jump. She is not the only one. It seems that people believe to see all kinds of strange appearances.
There is the New-foundland version of the Sasquatch for instance, a giant hairy ape-like man. Or a man-like ape, depending on the source.
Let`s dig a little bit in the past first. Author Bruce Hynes writes in the book “Here be Dragons, Strange Creatures of Newfoundland and Labrador”, that around 1895, a man called William Decker, living in a small settlement on the Northern Peninsula, encountered an immense “beastman” on a hunting trip in the hinterlands of Pistolet Bay. The terrified Decker shot several times at the Sasquatch. “He fired again and the beast fell so close to him that he could smell his foetid breath”, Hynes writes. (I had to look up the word: foetid or fetid means rotten or foul).
Decker estimated at the time, that the beast`s weight was about 450 kilograms, it was more than 3 metres tall and his arm span more than 4 metres. Its huge tracks were bigger than Decker`s snowshoes. William Decker left the carcass and the area quickly (no smart phones to document that incident, I am sorry to say).
But the encounter had repercussions even for later generations on the Northern Peninsula. A friend told me that, when he was a child, kids were told not to go to Muddy Cove, past the hamlet of Hay Cove, otherwise the “Black Man” would take them. My friend is convinced that the tales of Decker`s Sasquatch persisted in such warnings to kids on the Northern Peninsula.
In some cases, though, these hairy ogres turned out to be Newfoundland dogs. I heard of another beast that keeps the human imagination on the Northern Penin-sula in its thrall: a black panther. Or a cougar or a leopard, according to reports. Or some mix between cat and dog. Quite a few people seem to have report-edly seen huge cats on the Northern Peninsula.
Bruce Hynes dedicates an entire chapter of his book to these mysterious creatures. Hynes mentions an incident near the Port au Choix peninsula where residents began to see big black cats in 2008. “Aaron Beswick, of the newspaper Northern Pen, interviewed Marian Plough-man of the town Port au Choix concerning her sighting of a large feline”, Hynes reports.
Allegedly, Mrs. Ploughman had seen the beast crossing the road south of Hawke`s Bay, near Whaleback Pond, when she drove to her cabin. In her account, the cat was about one metre long and its tail slightly longer. The woman also noticed its fangs and – interesting detail! – its big paws splaying out on the gravel road.
According to Hynes, Aaron Beswick unearthed more stories in the region be-tween Rocky Harbour and New Ferolle. A fisherman named Earl Keough from Parsons Pond for example told Beswick that he had heard the blood-curling screams of a big cat. And more people seem to have heard it, too.
This kind of story continues to this day. Just recently, somebody posted on Face-book that there had allegedly been cougar sightings near Corner Brook.
In some cases, it might have been a lynx, suggested an acquaintance of mine.
He mentioned that sometimes, people also mistake Huskies for small polar bears.
Because hard evidence is missing in all the above mentioned cases, like photographs, carcasses or proven tracks, we cannot really be sure if and what kind of alien creatures roam the Newfoundland wilderness.
One thing is certain, though: There are other animals in the wild that should not be there. Abandoned cats, for instance. Not huge black cats with terrifying fangs, but frightened, starving, traumatised pets. Contrary to some peoples` beliefs, domesticated animals can-not survive in the wild, at least not for long. The short time they have to fight for their lives out in the cold and unfamiliar environment is pure horror for them. And dogs should not be tied up outside all day long in cold temperatures. Or do these owners think their pet is a polar bear?
In the long-term, the irresponsible acts of a few people come back to haunt entire communities, their councils and citizens when abandoned cats and dogs – often not spayed or neutered – are roaming villages and dumps. These pitiful sightings are well confirmed and documented – no rumours and tell-tales here. Maybe we should invent a giant hairy Bigfoot to scare the living daylights out of people who condemn their pets to a miserable life out in the wild when they get tired of these helpless creatures.
Photo Stacey Knudsen, St. Lunaire-Griquet
