Not even four days could cover all of the weird hooey happening in Florida …
The Skunk Ape: Bigfoot’s Foul-smelling Cousin
There may not be any gargantuan penguins in Florida , but the panel ’s still out on the being of the Skunk imitator . standardized to the Pacific Northwest ’s Bigfoot , the legends of an 8 - foot - tall , very hairy hierarch stomping through the swamps of Florida , reeking of anything from decayed ballock to cow manure to its namesake mammal , have been circulating for decades .
Most sightings tell of a tumid man - ape lurking in the backyard or appearing out of nowhere on the side of the route recently at night , before it goes take to the woods back into the woods . Some physical evidence has surfaced , such as plaster casts of step or fuzzy photos and telecasting , but no such puppet has ever been captured or killed . The sightings off a tip in the 1960s and ' 70s , but there are always a few every twelvemonth , keeping the legend alive .
The sighting became so common in the seventies that many call up it was only a matter of prison term before a Skunk anthropoid was caught . So , in 1977 , State Representative Paul Nuckolls ( R ) from Fort Myers assay to pass House neb 1664 ( HB1664 ) which would make it a misdemeanor to “ take , possess , harm or molest anthropoid or humanoid beast . ”
“ I ’d detest to see someone becharm one and put it in a circus or in a zoo , ” Nuckolls say . Although the “ Skunk Ape Bill ” made it through Committee , it was withdrawn before an official vote could be take by the House . Undeterred , Nuckolls seek again the follow year with HB58 , but it too got fool away down before a vote could be taken .
Perhaps the well - know and most compelling of the Skunk Ape stories come from an anon. letter of the alphabet sent to the Sarasota County Sheriff ’s Office in December 2000 from a implicated woman who claimed the “ orangutan ” in the accompanying photos could cause a car accident if not caught soon . The photosshow a large , ape - like creaturepartially hide behind saw palmetto leaves . Many conceive the creature is too large to be an orangutang , but assert it must be the elusive bum anthropoid . Of course , with the anonymous nature of the letter , it ’s also very easy to sack the photos as a humbug . Sadly , the woman who sent the letter has never come onwards to provide more information . So for now anyway , the existence of Florida ’s stinky sasquatch remain a closed book .
derive back tomorrow for the last — for this week , anyway — of our Florida entries , and check out the whole Strange States serieshere .
