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Creatures, Myths & Legends

State-funded Bigfoot hunts to be outlawed

By T.K. Randall
February 10, 2017 · Comment icon 47 comments

Searching for Bigfoot is an expensive hobby. Image Credit: Roger Patterson / Bob Gimlin
Lawmakers in New Mexico are aiming to make it illegal for state-funded colleges to hunt for Bigfoot.
The controversy began last year when it emerged that Dr. Christopher Dyer, head of the University of New Mexico's Gallup campus, had run up a $7000 taxpayer bill for Bigfoot related expenses.

A keen investigator in to the Bigfoot phenomenon, Dr Dyer has spent years attempting to track down the creature and earlier last year had organized a widely-publicized conference at the campus which was attended by high-profile speakers such as Dr. Jeff Meldrum and Rob Kryder.

While the event was very successful, it ended up costing the taxpayer rather a lot of money - as did an expedition for the elusive creature that was undertaken by Dr Dyer a few days later.
"When you're expending the resources of taxpaying citizens on what is completely pseudo-science, that's a betrayal of the public trust," said New Mexico Tech instructor Dave Thomas.

Now in response to the issue, Gallup senator George Munoz is sponsoring a new bill that will essentially make it illegal to use public funds to hunt for "fictitious creatures" including not only Bigfoot, but also, according to the bill, Pokemon, leprechauns and the Bogeyman.

"It's sad that we have to do this, that they don't have the ethics, that UNM doesn't have the ethics to stop this," said Munoz. "And now we have to draft bills to stop something that is not morally right."

Source: KRQE News 13 | Comments (47)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #38 Posted by Servator 7 years ago
Speaking of wasting funds. The pathetic amount of $7,000.00 to conduct research on perhaps a true creature (Considering the sightings and MISC proof i.e. Footprints, Photo, hair, DNA, BUT of course no BODY) and in comparison to what the Government dishes out for stupid meaningless research. EXAMPLE: Researchers at San Diego State University and the University of California Davis spent a portion of a $325,000 National Science Foundation grant to construct a robot squirrel to answer the question of why rattlesnakes rarely attack squirrels that wag their tails. NOW how is this truly important.
Comment icon #39 Posted by aquatus1 7 years ago
Gee, it's almost like there should be some sort of oversight over how funds are granted.
Comment icon #40 Posted by Merc14 7 years ago
Footprints are 99% fakes and the 1% they can't prove as fake aren't useful, photos are 99% fake and the 1% they can't prove as fake aren't useful, no hair, no DNA so you got these four wrong but you did get the no body part correct but lets add to that and say no part of a body either.  This is out of my swim lane but maybe you can answer, is it normal in academia for a guy at Dyer's level to have a pot of grant money he can simply allot, as he sees fit, with no oversight?
Comment icon #41 Posted by aquatus1 7 years ago
It's...not rare.  It's not incredibly common either.  Usually what happens is that a minor discretionary fund remains unused for a time, and gathers funds, and then someone notices that there is all this money not being used, and there is no oversight because it was never meant to be a major fund anyway.  Nowadays, discretionary funds of any size have caps on them, and if the fund doesn't renew after a couple of semesters, it is reviewed and/or shut-down.  There is little leeways these days for money that is unaccounted for or just laying around.
Comment icon #42 Posted by Merc14 7 years ago
Thanks!
Comment icon #43 Posted by stereologist 7 years ago
There are behavioral models of animals that are tied into all sorts of research. Here is a link to what you mentioned http://www.bio.sdsu.edu/pub/clark/Site_2/Rattlesnake-Squirrel_Interactions.html http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/07/tail-shakes-scare-snakes As explained the latter of the two links this was a case in which a controlled experiment was performed that involved a predator and prey. Apparently, it is one of the first of its kind. I don't know how much of the money was spent on the research, but it led to new information about the world we live. The BF event did not. If you think... [More]
Comment icon #44 Posted by The Butler 7 years ago
I'll give you some clues.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel The living squirrels are divided into five subfamilies, with about 58 genera and some 285 species. The oldest squirrel fossil, Hesperopetes, dates back to the Chadronian (late Eocene, about 40–35 million years ago) and is similar to modern flying squirrels. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattlesnake The 36 known species of rattlesnakes have between 65 and 70 subspecies,[2] all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to central Argentina. https://en.m... [More]
Comment icon #45 Posted by Horta 7 years ago
The studies into squirrel-rattlesnake interactions using such technology might sound "out there" at first glance, but is not silly at all, and is simply not comparable to indulging make believe (bigfoot). It's part of larger general studies into rattlesnake-squirrel interactions and how/why squirrel populations are successful and can even develop a heightened resistance in response to rattlesnake venom. It really is fascinating (as is the evolution of venom in such species). It could not only explain quite a bit more about the natural world (re predator/prey evolution) but overall, also has... [More]
Comment icon #46 Posted by Dunbaraj 7 years ago
I agree. There were much better ways to go about doing this. How did he not know there would be outrage?
Comment icon #47 Posted by freetoroam 7 years ago
His position as the  chief executive director combined with his passion of bigfoot hunting got to his head, sometimes when someone believes in something that much, they can not see how anyone could possibly not agree with them. Two things let him down here: 1: it was not his money. 2: there is no bigfoot.


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