This Group Says They Need to Kill One Bigfoot to Protect the Species
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on February 3rd, 2017
Photo: Discovery Communications
In 1999 my wife and I produced a popular show on Bigfoot called Sasquatch Odyssey: The Hunt for Bigfoot after which I thought I knew everything about the creature. But, after beginning production on Killing Bigfoot with the men of the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization (GCBRO), I realized how mistaken I was.
There are many theories about what Bigfoot is and isn’t. Generally, the creature is portrayed as tall, ape-like and bipedal. However, the GCBRO believe that in the South, with its warmer climate, Bigfoot is not quite as massive and bulky as its Pacific Northwest cousins. The GCBRO also believe that this smaller, ape-like creature is aggressive and fast, even dropping on all fours to run through the forests.
Bobby Hamilton and Jim Lansdale, founders of the GCBRO, are lifelong woodsmen with a deep commitment to protecting wildlife and habitat. They’ve also spent decades trying to prove that Sasquatch exists and have been met with a lot of skepticism. In our digital world, with dozens of photo editing apps, the legitimacy of photos and videos is always questioned. And while the team has collected DNA samples over the years, those have been contaminated. So, the GCBRO see only one way to prove irrefutably Bigfoot’s existence and that is to produce a real body that can be examined by experts.
Skeptics often wonder how Bigfoot has remained so elusive. Well, during the filming of Killing Bigfoot our crew had several experiences that may shed some light. In South Texas, a producer and an assistant saw a massive eight or nine foot, dark, bi-pedal figure move across the front of a house on a forested property late at night. It caused the surveillance lights to go on and dogs to bark. This entity moved fast and purposefully and then was gone. The other hunters and crew were too far off to be the culprit. Thus, if they truly exist, we know they move at night, are fast and disappear within seconds.
Next, during shooting in Louisiana, I sent two GCBRO hunters to investigate some woods where locals reported hearing and seeing ape-like creatures. The hunters came back with images, captured by chance on a head-mounted Go-Pro–it showed a bi-pedal form moving through the woods. Whatever it was, it had sloped shoulders, an ovoid head and it was avoiding the hunters. It stayed hidden behind a tree, blending in perfectly with the vertical lines in the woods, only moving when the GCBRO hunter wearing the mounted camera did. What was it? We can’t say for sure. But it didn’t look or behave like a typical human would have in that situation. If any of these reports are true, Bigfoot is adept at avoiding humans by standing still in the forest and using the surroundings as camouflage.
Credit: Gryphon Productions
Nonetheless, as the hunters would say, this evidence isn’t compelling enough for the general public or scientists. Thus, they maintain that killing just one specimen is what is needed to prove its existence, once and for all. Then, the Bigfoot can be protected in America.
Peter von Puttkamer is the executive producer and director of the new series Killing Bigfoot on Destination America. For over 30 years, his company Gryphon Productions has produced shows exploring Native American legends, cryptozoology, lost explorers and dangerous but often threatened wildlife.
#DestinationAmerica #KillingBigfoot
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
