"When I got home I looked at the cage and didn't see the rabbits. I went downstairs quickly and saw the scene. I had a nervous attack and had to take some pills," said Amarillis Flores, who returned home yesterday morning after having spent the weekend at her daughter's house.

Amarillis, who was in charge of the residence, was alarmed when she saw that her grandchildrens' pets--two white rabbits, a black duck, a rooster and a hen--lay petrified at the bottom of their cages, located at the rear of the backyard. Neighbor Salvador Rosario said that on Sunday night he noticed that the dogs were very restless, but dismissed the possibility that the canines could have been the cause of the animal deaths, as the cage would require a strength greater than a dog's to tear through the screen.

"Two dogs have been missing since Saturday--a dachshund named Oreja and a poodle named Negri," said Rosario, a retired schoolteacher.

The scene was macabre: a duck, still agonizing, displayed two holes on its back through which its blood was apparently extracted. The equidistant holes could also be seen on the rooster's back and on that of the hen. The rabbits' front paws had been severed; two geese and another duck survived the carnage. "They couldn't have been dogs, because they would have dragged the animals away. It was a two-legged chupacabra," said Flores, meaning that it was either the mythical creature that no one has been able to identify, or it was a human being.

Inside the cage, where the smell of decomposition prevailed, there was no trace of blood and its gate had not been forced. The wire fencing had been pierced or ripped by something with considerable strength, according to the affected parties.

When interviewed by PRIMERA HORA, veterinarian and zoologist Pedor Ynez noted that the incidents ascribed to the Chupacabra -- a character believed by many to have wings, fly swiftly and have nocturnal habits-- could be the work of stray dogs, apes or exotic animals not native to Puerto Rico. The specialist in exotic wildlife stated that during the drought season, some types of rats and mice tend to suck the blood of others to survive.