ROXAS CITY -- Chupacabra, said to be a mystical blood-sucking animal supposedly sighted in Puerto Rico and Latin America, is allegedly making its presence felt in Capiz province and some residents here believe it’s for real.

Some residents of Barangay Dumolog in this city believed that it was a chupacabra that killed eight chickens in their village. The fowls were headless when they were found.

Jojo Canobida, a resident of Sitio Paon of Dumolog, said that it was early in the morning of Jan. 11 when he saw a dog-like animal attacking his chicken. The animal fled when it saw him. Or so he claimed.

Canobida said the animal sucked the blood out of his chickens.

In September last year, two goats in Barangay Lawaan, also this city, were also allegedly attacked by similar animals.

The goats’ owner, engineer Joel Jumbas of the Capiz provincial engineering office, said he could not ascertain who killed his two goats but he said he was told that it might have been a chupacabra because of the manner of killing.

Jumbas said it was his goat caretaker, Wilfredo Fano, who told him about the strange way his goats were killed -- they were found with puncture marks in the neck and their blood sucked out.

Jumbas is raising goats inside the compound of the Provincial Engineer’s Office in Barangay Lawaan near the Capiz Rehabilitation Center.

The chupacabra, which means “goat sucker” in Spanish, is an animal said to be unknown to science and systemically killed animals in places like Puerto Rico, Miami, Nicaragua, Chile, and Mexico. The creature’s name originated with the discovery of some dead goats in Puerto Rico with puncture wounds in their necks and their blood allegedly drained, according to an entry at the Skeptics Dictionary’s website www.skepdic.com.

The owners of the victims originally thought the chupacabra to be a half-human, half-vampire beast. The victims, most often goats and chickens, are reportedly drained of all their blood, but are otherwise left intact. There is usually no other evidence of a struggle or attack -- simply two or sometimes three puncture marks (almost large enough to accommodate a human finger) in the animal’s neck, said another website, www.science.howstuffwork.com.

Stories suggesting Chupacabra activity can be found in newspapers dating back to the 1950s. In fact, the first reported case in North America was in Arizona sometime around 1956. Although incidents have been reported in Arizona, Oregon, Michigan, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Florida, and parts of Chile, Brazil and Mexico, the majority of activity has occurred in Puerto Rico. A rash of attacks plagued various regions of Puerto Rico in 1995. In Canovanas alone, several hundred livestock fatalities were attributed to the chupacabra, the science.howstuffwork.com said.