William Dranginis of Manassas, Virginia, and director of Virginia Bigfoot Research, gives his permission to share his sense of the influence of the program on today’s research and discovery of Bigfoot:
January 13, 2012
Will the Animal Planet program Finding Bigfoot have a negative impact on Sasquatch field studies and research?
One researcher certainly feels so.
William Dranginis of Manassas, Virginia, and director of Virginia Bigfoot Research, gives his permission to share his sense of the influence of the program on today’s research and discovery of Bigfoot:
First of all the BFRO (Finding Bigfoot) is NOT a scientific group or does it practice Scientific Methodology in any of their investigations, that I know of anyway. When I was a BFRO Curator back in 1999/2000, no scientific methodologies were used. The Finding Bigfoot Show is no different than the Ghost Hunters show on the Sci-Fi channel. How do I know that, I was contacted by the producers of the Finding Bigfoot show when the show was
in its infancy. I was told by them it would be just like the Ghost Hunters show except they will be looking for the Bigfoot creatures. I didn’t want any part of it so I declined.Before the Finding Bigfoot show aired, I seldom received Bigfoot Sighting Reports that included sounds like calls and tree knocks. The sighting reports I received were of the actual creature or creatures and possible tracks. When I traveled to the sighting location and interviewed the eyewitness, it was rare that any type of calls or tree knocks were mentioned. The sightings I received were randomly scattered throughout remote areas.
Since the Finding Bigfoot show aired, a majority of the reports that come into my website are from people in urban areas usually in housing subdivisions. Those reports have included tree knocks, calls or rock clacking sounds. Not a single creature sighting.
When I contact the person that files the report, they expect a TEAM to come out and set up equipment at their property to monitor the activity 24/7. And since their children are into Bigfoot because of the television show, they need to be part of the team! About three months ago I received two separate reports from the same subdivision in a nearby town, both families lived in homes that back to the same patch of woods, both had young children, both watched Finding Bigfoot, both would go out to their back woods and broadcast Bigfoot calls they found on the internet and also do tree knocks and rock clacking.
What one family was hearing and reporting were the sounds generated by the other family down the street. Then without knowing, they would reverse rolls, ultimately both families contacted me through my website to report Bigfoot lives in their back yard! Once I discovered what was going on I told them to stop the calls and tree knocks, since then, the
Bigfoot seemed to have disappeared from the subdivision.With that said, it’s my opinion that the Finding Bigfoot show has actually polluted the once tranquil environment of the forests, now those same woods are filled with children and people hoping to lure Bigfoot in with their calls and tree knocking. The members of the Finding Bigfoot show are now teaching the children watching the show that everything they
hear, smell or see is a Bigfoot!!! There is absolutely no science being practiced by the Finding Bigfoot team, just deception of the children’s young minds that watch it.Also, how many children and adults will be victims of tick bites that will result in Lyme disease or get bitten by poisonous snakes as they venture into the woods looking to Find Bigfoot? Maybe the Finding Bigfoot producers should think of putting in some disclaimers on the show just like the Myth Busters television show does. Better yet, TEACH the children
about the hazards of being in the woods while Finding Bigfoot. Teach them about ticks and Lyme disease and how you can get it, TEACH them about poisonous snakes and how to identify them and what to do if bitten by them.Its my opinion that the hands of the Finding Bigfoot Clock have been pushed back and are actually reversing direction with the Finding Bigfoot show.
BTW, my Finding Bigfoot Clock (trademark) is based on the famous Doomsday Clock face started in 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is to global disaster!
The Finding Bigfoot Clock (trademark) time has been going backwards since the Georgia Boys fiasco and Animals Planet’s Finding Bigfoot came out.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Bigfoot, CryptoZoo News, Finding Bigfoot, Media Appearances, Men in Cryptozoology, Sasquatch