Bigfoot Hoaxer Killed

[Superluminal]

http://www.livescience.com/22742-big...-accident.html
Bigfoot hoaxer run over and killed. Now that other hoaxers know you can get killed doing stupid things like this, be interesting to see if BF sightings go down after this. Really sad for the two teenage girls involved.

[vonmazur]

I saw that as well, wearing a "Ghillie Suit" and trying to create a "Bigfoot Sighting"....I wonder if Ethanol was involved in this sad tale???

Dale

[HenrikOlsen]

From another article covering the story:

Tenley was struck by vehicles driven by two girls, ages 15 and 17, who were unable to stop in time, authorities said.

So that's two people whose lives have been damaged because a moron autodarwinized.

[grapes]

Tenley's death will likely reignite a long-standing debate within the Bigfoot community: Would it be ethical to shoot and kill a Bigfoot? Some say yes, because that's the only way to prove they exist, and once proof is found, funds could be made available to protect them as an endangered species. Others say no, that because Bigfoot sightings are so rare, they must have very small populations and killing one might drive the animals to extinction. Ecological ethics aside, aiming a gun at a Bigfoot could be a bad idea. You simply can't know for sure if the mysterious, burly figure you have lined up in your sights is the real beast, or a bear, or a hoaxer in a costume.

So, the great debate: should it be "should we kill "bigfeet"?", or "should we kill bigfeet?", or "should we kill bigfoots?"

[Selenite]

Funny the lengths some people will go to keep a tired myth alive.

However, I can't help but wonder if alcohol or a bar bet was involved.

[Tog]

My inner cynic says shoot.

If it's a real Bigfoot, it will give conclusive proof. We can then put them on the endangered list at the cost of just one or two. Since no one has ever found a skeleton or any other conclusive remains, they must have freakishly long lifespans so even if there are only a few running around, one being killed by rifle won't alter things that much from other forms of death by misadventure.

If it's a hoaxer dressed in a costume, then their death will be the head on a pike others can look to and think... "Hmmm maybe dressing like an animal that people want to shoot and running around the woods is a bad idea." If they don't realize it's a bad idea, well, that's probably what Darwin meant.



The above is a joke. I'm not advocating shooting things just to see if they exist. I've never even heard that there was a debate about it.

[Buttercup]

What a way to go down in death. To always be laughed/jeered at, "Oh yeah -- he got run over pretending to be Bigfoot."

And yes, sure feel for the two girls involved. An acquaintance of mine back home was the unwitting participant in a "leap in front of car to commit suicide" -- he did die from the impact, and she was never the same.

I know this man didn't suicide. Just trying to make a comparison.

[Swift]

Given that this is not astronomy or space related, I moved the thread from CT to OTB.

[primummobile]

Someone I work with jokingly made the claim that it was a real Sasquatch dressed in a Sasquatch costume so that it would relieve some of the pressure of being discovered. I'm not really sure what he means by that.

[Fazor]

I've heard of snipers wearing Guille suites. Hunters too . . . but never seen one worn by a speed-bump before. Interesting.

[HenrikOlsen]

For a hunter to do it should count as attempted autodarwinizing.
It's really stupid to make it hard for other hunters to identify what they're about to shoot.

[LookingSkyward]

Mostly (at least where I live), hunters in Ghillie are bow-hunting - a LOT fewer hunters in the field during bow season. Rifle hunters need to wear orange. I'm sure this varies by state, and maybe even county in the USA. I've done some hiding in Ghillies, but not during hunting season.

[Trebuchet]

The best reason for NOT shooting a sasquatch is that it's probably a guy in a suit.

In case anyone's wondering why the 15 year old was driving, that was the legal age when I got my license in that state and still is. An approved drivers ed course is required.

[KaiYeves]

Ouch, that definitely is an unpleasant way to die...

[NEOWatcher]

The story is bad enough, but walking out into traffic just to establish a "sighting"?
Hey; I know people don't pay attention on the road, but if he were just walking along the berm, or close to the road he would have accomplished the same thing. In fact, when in disquise, you don't even want too close of a view.

Yep; got to be the alcohol.

[DoggerDan]

The only thing I can think of that might land higher on the Darwin Awards is dressing in an armadillo suit and pretending you're road kill.

[publiusr]

So Richard Kiel should avoid wearing fur coats...

[TrAI]

So, the great debate: should it be "should we kill "bigfeet"?", or "should we kill bigfeet?", or "should we kill bigfoots?"

My guess is that it would be bigfoots, as it would be one of the names of the species. I am no expert in English, but as far as I know you do not use ablaut plurals for names, even though they are derived from words that uses such plural forms.

[Romanus]

My inner cynic says shoot.

Ditto. I've heard believers and people who claim to have seen one say that it would be impossible to kill one, that they're just "too human". I don't buy it; people have shot every animal under the Sun legally and illegally (and not a few people), most of which would not make them famous for life. In a world where part of the reason great auks are extinct is that they became rare enough to be valuable, any sasquatch is as good as dead in hunting country.

[swampyankee]

I think it's in very poor taste to make jokes about somebody getting killed, even if he was an advocate for a really stupid idea. No one would be making this kind of joke if it was, say, a random hunter.

That being said, dressing up in a camouflage suit and playing games by the side of a road in the middle of nowhere is not sensible behavior. If bigfoot exists, the species has certainly have shown much more sense about vehicles and roads than a significant number of people and all non-human animals, as none of them have been run over.

[grapes]

I think it's in very poor taste to make jokes about somebody getting killed, even if he was an advocate for a really stupid idea. No one would be making this kind of joke if it was, say, a random hunter.

Poor taste, surely, but that's what the Darwin awards are all about.

That being said, dressing up in a camouflage suit and playing games by the side of a road in the middle of nowhere is not sensible behavior. If bigfoot exists, the species has certainly have shown much more sense about vehicles and roads than a significant number of people and all non-human animals, as none of them have been run over.

So, you're saying that if anyone sees one, it's not one, because they're too smart to be seen? And if someone really wants to portray a hoax bigfoot accurately, they should just sit in their suit watching TV in their living room, with the shades drawn?

[swampyankee]

So, you're saying that if anyone sees one, it's not one, because they're too smart to be seen? And if someone really wants to portray a hoax bigfoot accurately, they should just sit in their suit watching TV in their living room, with the shades drawn?

Right now? I'd say the simple fact that nobody has piled their pickup into a bigfoot argues that they don't exist. Many people (like the guy who got himself run over) haven't figured out how to avoid oncoming traffic, no wild and few domestic animals have figured out traffic (I've seen urban dogs that have), so they get run over. But bigfoot has figured out traffic? Yeah, right. Biology (no apes evolved in the New World) and common sense (no bigfoot has been accidentally shot or run over) argue that bigfoot does not exist. Native American legend? Sightings by mountain men? Sure, and I'm going to hunt through Europe looking for pixies and brownies.

So, if person sees bigfoot, it's a guy in a suit or a bear on its hind feet.

[Superluminal]

Right now? I'd say the simple fact that nobody has piled their pickup into a bigfoot argues that they don't exist. Many people (like the guy who got himself run over) haven't figured out how to avoid oncoming traffic, no wild and few domestic animals have figured out traffic (I've seen urban dogs that have), so they get run over. But bigfoot has figured out traffic? Yeah, right. Biology (no apes evolved in the New World) and common sense (no bigfoot has been accidentally shot or run over) argue that bigfoot does not exist. Native American legend? Sightings by mountain men? Sure, and I'm going to hunt through Europe looking for pixies and brownies.

So, if person sees bigfoot, it's a guy in a suit or a bear on its hind feet.

Most BF researchers will tell you, BF is an intelligent, yet very shy animal that does everything it can to avoid contact with humans. Yet most sightings involve a BF running across a road in front of a car, or walking into someones yard and looking in a window. Not exactly what I would expect from a shy, intelligent animal.

[HenrikOlsen]

Most BF researchers will tell you, BF is an intelligent, yet very shy animal that does everything it can to avoid contact with humans. Yet most sightings involve a BF running across a road in front of a car, or walking into someones yard and looking in a window. Not exactly what I would expect from a shy, intelligent animal.

Just goes to show yet again that there are humans for whom "shy" and "intelligent" does not apply.

[swampyankee]

Most BF researchers will tell you, BF is an intelligent, yet very shy animal that does everything it can to avoid contact with humans. Yet most sightings involve a BF running across a road in front of a car, or walking into someones yard and looking in a window. Not exactly what I would expect from a shy, intelligent animal.

Intelligent and sneaky, as they seem to be careful to be only seen by BF "researchers."

[grapes]

no wild and few domestic animals have figured out traffic (I've seen urban dogs that have), so they get run over. But bigfoot has figured out traffic? Yeah, right.

Well, the bipedal bigfeets would seem to have a leg up on dogs, so they *might*

Biology (no apes evolved in the New World)

But, but, neither did humans...

and common sense (no bigfoot has been accidentally shot or run over) argue that bigfoot does not exist.

Common sense has no place in real science, didn't Feynman say that?

Native American legend? Sightings by mountain men? Sure, and I'm going to hunt through Europe looking for pixies and brownies.

So, if person sees bigfoot, it's a guy in a suit or a bear on its hind feet.

There are other options...

[Superluminal]

Intelligent and sneaky, as they seem to be careful to be only seen by BF "researchers."

Or little old ladies who live alone way out in the country.

[swampyankee]

Or little old ladies who live alone way out in the country.

Got to watch out for the elderberry wine.

A few years ago, there was a big to-do in Connecticut because a mountain line was struck and killed by a car on a highway (corpse collected, species verified, etc: it was most certainly a mountain lion) near the Connecticut-New York border. The incident was used to argue that there are mountain lions in the state. Since the nearest verified sightings have been in, iirc, Illinois, the general consensus was that it was an escaped pet (what kind of nut wants a pet mountain lion? They are known to eat people.) or maybe performing animal. One of the lines of reasoning was that it was not a wild animal was that it's unlikely one could get from the last verified sighting location to Connecticut without several sightings, dead livestock, half-eaten rottweilers, or somebody running it over.

[tnjrp]

There was a declared BF researcher and general wooist writing on a skeptic board a few years back who was of a mind that BF is a transdimensional being capable of d-jumping any time. So try running over or shooting something that can just choose not to be there if it so prefers, you skepheads!

He also claimed that pareidolia doesn't exists as such -- the faces and forms were really there when you looked and gone back to another dimension the next moment -- and that socks vanishing from washing machines were evidence of his "theory", so I'm not quite sure if he was genuine or trying to get a rise out of the board members.

[vonmazur]

Got to watch out for the elderberry wine.

A few years ago, there was a big to-do in Connecticut because a mountain line was struck and killed by a car on a highway (corpse collected, species verified, etc: it was most certainly a mountain lion) near the Connecticut-New York border. The incident was used to argue that there are mountain lions in the state. Since the nearest verified sightings have been in, iirc, Illinois, the general consensus was that it was an escaped pet (what kind of nut wants a pet mountain lion? They are known to eat people.) or maybe performing animal. One of the lines of reasoning was that it was not a wild animal was that it's unlikely one could get from the last verified sighting location to Connecticut without several sightings, dead livestock, half-eaten rottweilers, or somebody running it over.

Killed on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford...I think it was a wild animal living in CT, and the State does not want to go thru the hassle of having an another endangered species. When I lived in CT, I saw them in Newtown, crossing the tracks behind Levitts furniture warehouse. I was driving the train at the time...They are certainly an indiginous species in CT, but no one wants to admit it...

PS: They inhabit my back yard in Alabama, and no one notices!!! BTW: The last confirmed killing of a Felis Concolor was in Glastonbury in the 30's...He was an old lion and not able to catch prey, and just looking for some tobacco workers to eat!! They should have just put out food for him and taken care of the old guy!!! I am a "gun nut", but I do not believe in hunting!!!

Dale