The Cuero Chupacabra Carcass — Cuero, Texas (2007)

In August 2007, Phylis Canion, a rancher in Cuero, Texas, found the carcass of a strange, hairless, blue-gray canine-like creature on the road near her property in DeWitt County. The animal had been hit by a car, and its unusual appearance — hairless skin, an elongated snout, pronounced canine teeth, and an overall gaunt physique — led Canion to suspect she had found a chupacabra. Her ranch had experienced unexplained poultry losses, with chickens found dead and apparently drained of blood through small puncture wounds. Canion preserved the creature's head and submitted tissue samples for DNA analysis at Texas State University. The results identified the animal as a coyote with severe sarcoptic mange — a parasitic skin disease caused by mites that causes hair loss, thickened skin, and a ghoulish appearance. Despite the DNA results, Canion maintained that the creature did not resemble any coyote she had ever seen in decades of ranching. The Cuero carcass became one of the most examined pieces of physical evidence in chupacabra history. It also helped establish the 'Texas chupacabra' as a distinct phenomenon from the original Puerto Rican version — while the Caribbean chupacabra was described as a bipedal, reptilian creature, the Texas variant consistently manifests as a canine suffering from mange.