The Rocket

Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: Opinion

Sasquatch lives two hours north of Pittsburgh in the Allegheny National Forest.

That was the first problem I had when I read the story. A hunter set up night vision cameras in Elk County by a salt lick to photograph deer. When he saw the pictures, he found an ape-like creature. When I looked at the pictures, I started leaning toward the negative even more. How I wish some things were true, or at the least, had some more evidence to support them.

The first Bigfoot sighting was revealed to be a hoax when the man wearing the costume revealed the truth. Now, what appears to be a "baby sasquatch" has appeared on surveillance cameras that a hunter placed in the woods. I've known many hunters and I hunt myself. Never have I set up a camera to take pictures of deer. I prefer to look at them through a scope.

Regardless, like any picture of an unexplained creature, the quality is extremely poor. I want to see someone get a nice, high-quality picture that is in focus and shows some detail. If I turned in pictures like this for my photojournalism class, sasquatch or no sasquatch, my professor would laugh, pitch them and probably smack me for wasting his time.

What scared me even more was that while I was looking for more information, I found that there are dozens upon dozens of sites dedicated to Bigfoot sightings. One of them is even based in Pennsylvania and records sightings on a county-by-county basis. Granted, the site seems to be a very unreliable source for information, but we are talking about the missing link, folks.

The sad thing is that I want to believe this. I want to see someone set a trap and capture one of these things for the sole reason that all these sasquatch organizations can say, "We were right, morons! We told you they were real!"

The Pennsylvania Game Commission says the creature is a bear with mange. I cannot trust a government organization that says it is a bear and makes me pay an extra $16 for a bear stamp to hunt the things.

They just want to make us think bears are this plentiful animal and get the extra cash from the hunting licenses. I have seen less than a dozen bears in my life and it seems pretty convenient to toss a sasquatch in that category.

In the end, I do not know what to believe. If the thing exists, I can head to the Allegheny National Forest and mess with the creature like the campers in the Jack Link's beef jerky commercials.

The worst thing that could happen is 40 years from now, when the man that took the pictures is on his deathbed, he will reveal that it was a hoax, just like every other creature we have had doubts about in the past.

Science is boring and I just want a mystery to be solved that is interesting.

Tony Maiocco is a senior communication major and a regular contributor to The Rocket.

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