Interestingly, the measurement 14 inches came up earlier in March 2009 also, when regional DEC officials said the above photo was merely a 14 inches tall domestic cat, not a cougar.
August 3, 2009
Tired of all those cryptozoology hoax videos on Youtube, Google, Yahoo, and other sites?
There is a breaking story out of New York State that may give some serious pause to the people who think its funny to produce faked footage of Mystery Cats and more.
Trenton Barry, 27, of Newark/Arcadia, New York has been charged with third-degree falsely reporting a cryptid cat incident by New York Department of Environmental Conservation officers. Barry is scheduled to appear Wednesday, August 26, 2009, in Arcadia Town Court, and if found guilty, he’ll be fined up to $1,000 and could go to jail for a year.
In July 2009, Barry told officials and the media that he was watering the garden at his parents’ Filkins Road home when he saw a cat-like creature that looked to be about the size of a German shepherd dog.
“When I saw the animal the first time, my heart was pounding and I was really scared,” he said in an interview after the alleged sighting.
On the same day, Barry told how the cryptid cat returned and he captured images of it on his cell phone’s video recorder. DEC officials interviewed him — then 2007 video by a Wolcott resident that matched the footage surfaced — and Barry soon recanted his story. Barry admitted he found the supposed cougar video on the Internet and had sent it to his friends, having no idea the message would become widespread.
“An investigation (in 2007) by the DEC showed that the animal in the video was only 14 inches in height and definitely not a cougar,” said Linda Vera, spokesperson for New York DEC’s Region 8.
“This is the most extravagant hoax related to cougars that I have ever seen,” said Lt. David Baker, law enforcement supervisor for the State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation, regarding the Trenton Barry video.
Interestingly, the measurement 14 inches came up earlier in March 2009 also, when regional DEC officials said the above photo was merely a 14 inches tall domestic cat, not a cougar.
“People don’t realize just how big a mountain lion is. It is big enough to pull down a deer. This one was capable of pulling down a squirrel.”
– Lt. David Baker, Department of Environmental Conservation.
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 Alien Big Cats, Breaking News, Conspiracies, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Hoaxes, Mystery Cats, Videos