Blog for week of September 1-7 2008

Yes this site is dedicated to Champ, however I feel the need to speak about the recent Big Foot Hoax.

While the hoax certainly drew attention to the Big Foot theory it drew the wrong type of attention. When people hoax Cryptid evidence it hurts everyone involved with Cryptozoology whether researchers or simply believers.

It causes every piece of evidence of any Cryptid to automatically be suspect.Every bit of evidence is presumed to be just another hoax unless it can conclusively be proven real.

Photos and video are no longer sufficient evidence of a crptids existence because people will assume the photos or film to have been faked or photo-shopped or altered in some way. Unless  maybe you can get the Cryptid on  a live TV broadcast. And the chances of most Cryptid hunters having CNN along when they run into a Cryptid are -shall we say rather slim.

What this means for Cryptozoology researchers is if you intend to present evidence of a Cryptids existence, your evidence had better be backed with physical evidence like hair samples, tissue samples,blood, bone samples ,fossils , a live animal or dead body.

When I say physical evidence I mean from the actual Cryptid and my advice say nothing until you know your evidence is sound.

Don't hold a press conference and put on a huge dog and pony show for the press then announce the DNA results you got back were from a human and a opossum. Don't say you have a body if all you have is a Halloween suit folded up in a freezer.

The hoaxers make it easy for the skeptics to discredit anyone involved in Cryptozoology. If you want the skeptics to take us seriously it is time we back up our evidence with DNA and species identification tests. Then go ahead and hold a press conference if you like but only when we can present honest solid physical evidence to the world.