The 'Hank the Bigfoot' exhibit has been running into several roadblocks lately. Ricky D. hasn't been taking the public by storm. Venues in Phoenix said they didn't want his exhibit. So far Albuquerque venues haven't welcomed him either. The cryptozoology community has overwhelmingly rejected the big stuffed rug named 'Hank.' Seems that the carnival act is packing up and moving back to Texas.
How much longer will the 'road & pony show' continue?
A man who claims he killed Bigfoot and said he’s got the proof, took his story on the road but didn’t exactly get a warm reception in Phoenix. So now, he’s trying his his luck in Albuquerque.
Tucked inside a glass case inside a trailer is where Rick Dyer is hauling what he claims to be the body of Bigfoot. It’s not the first place you would think to the real Sasquatch.
Some said it looks like it’s part of a circus act. However, Dyer, the self-proclaimed Bigfoot hunter, said it’s the real deal and he’s taking it on country-wide tour, even making a stop in Albuquerque.
Dyer said the creature stands 8 feet tall and weighed almost 800 pounds when he killed it. He said its feet measure about 13 inches long and his head is a lot bigger than the average man’s.
“His head, as you can see, is almost three times as big as mine,” Dyer said.
Dyer said he shot it in September 2012 outside of San Antonio after being in the woods only six days. He shot cellphone video of what he claims is proof Bigfoot was alive before he shot it.
“I was on a mission to find him because of what happened in 2008,” Dyer said.
If the name Rick Dyer sounds familiar, it should. In 2008, Dyer was busted trying to pass a rubber suit as the body of Bigfoot. It was a complete hoax.
However, Dyer said he did shoot one before that stunt, but the government took it. He said this is about restoring his reputation.
According to a Phoenix television station, venues there – including the International UFO Conference – said they didn’t want his exhibit. Albuquerque venues didn’t welcome him either before Dyer and his so-called real Bigfoot packed up and headed to Texas.
But get this, Dyer said that is where he will add a second Bigfoot to his exhibit. That’s right, he claims he shot two that same day in 2012. He said two venues, one in Amarillo and one in Austin, have booked his exhibit. - KRGE
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A supposed taxidermist posted the following on Bigfoot Evidence earlier:
Hello everyone, this is going to be a long post, but please bare with me, b/c i will give the bigfoot community almost a slam dunk as to why this is a hoax. I have to say that i am very disappointed in my fellow taxidermists for not already destroying this dummy, but in our community, this kind of thing isnt given a second thought. I am a taxidermist of over 25 years and am very good at what i do. And this dummy being labeled a piece of "taxidermy" is very offensive. But it does a good job of proving this is a hoax beyond a shadow of a doubt. As if it wasnt obvious.
So here goes. Taxidermy has changed alot over the past century. when you walk into cracker barrel and see those old deer mounts above the fireplace, you are typically looking at vintage taxidermy. They have stood okay against the test of time, but they are nothing compared to what we can do today. Today, a competent taxidermist, can make the animal look better than it did alive. People would be shocked. You could bring me a coyote missing half its hide, and i could take the hide from another, blend it in, and youd never notice the difference. And that is a very simple process as an example. The reason i am saying this is because if indeed a bigfoot was shot and it was somehow mounted, then obvioiusly, no one would settle on a cheap vintage style mount. If this was a real animal, then the taxidermist would have mounted it in a pose, not laying dead. No one in there right mind would have asked for that pose, but thats a mute point.
So moving on, most know somewhat what taxidermy involves, but for those that dont, i will tell you on an animal of this size. The taxidermist would make either a dorsal or ventral incision and would remove the skin from the body. All fat and muscle tissue would then be removed from the skin, and the skin would then be further thinned, until it is as thin as possible. This ensures good pliability and preservation. And this is where Dyer messed up if he wanted this convincing.
Taxidermy and Embalming are 2 different things. Dyer has presented this as a piece of taxidermy, but from the cuts on its chest, its obvious, he got confused as what story to use, b/c those kind of cuts would only have been made if embalming a specimen. And that could never happen, b/c the embalming process will only preserve a body for days before it goes bad. Thats why if you dig up your uncle after a week of being dead, he will have deteriorated. Which brings me back to the taxidermy process. On an animal like this you would never make a horizontal cut across the chest. The whole point of taxidermy is to make the animal look real. Therefore as a taxidermist you would make one cut on this animal. That would be a cut along the back from around the mid shoulder to the pelvis. The reason the back is chosen, is b/c when you stitch the animal up, the stitch work would not be evident. The entire animals body would be manipulated and skinned through this one dorsal cut. Sounds hard, and it can be, but thats how taxidermy works.
So after that dorsal cut was made, and the animal skinned, fleshed and tanned, then you come upon the big problem of a form. There would be 2 options. ONe would be to pack it with sawdust, which is totally unthinkable in todays age. You would surely go for a typical foam mannequin. This would require custom molding, and would be very expensive, and take a long time. This would produce a foam body of the dimensions of the skinnned animal. The hide would then be stretched over this form carefully, then sewed up, allowed to dry, and then the details would come. There would be no "freezer burn", the taxidermist would fix all that and through airbrushing, and prosthetics, the bigfoot would look alive. Thats the point of taxidermy, not to make it look dead.
So here is absolute proof it is a fake from someone who knows.:
1..) No taxidermist would ever accept such a job b/c they would almost definetly lose there license. Its the same reason you cant accept birds of prey to mount in the USA. No one would risk there career over this.
2.) Such a mount would cost a bare min of 20,000 dollars to even get a decent mount.
3.) This dummy was made for Rick to say he got it mounted (taxidermied), yet the maker got all the details wrong. The dummy incision cuts show what would be done if embalming a standard body, not if the animal was mounted. You would never see that stitchwork if it was mounted. And the animal cant be embalmed because it would have gone bad by now. And freeze drying is not an option here.
4.) There would never be any type of freezer burn or other shrinking. A taxidermist fixes all that.
5.) If you are paying 20 grand plus for a mount, you will get it in the most life like pose imaginable, not in a dead coffin pose.
6.) The nostrils of course would be hollow. And again, they would look just like they did when it died. A taxidermist will make sure of that. even hides that are years old and freezer burnt to heck, can be brought back and reconstructed perfectly
7.) As a taxidermist you can look at the overall specimen and tell immediately its fake. No part of its anatomy is correct. Even an embalmed body would never be in this condition. And again, it cant be embalmed.
So i cant tell you with 100 percent confidence that this dummy is not a piece of taxidermy. Instead its a dummy, pure and simple. It did take some work to make it. But the maker of the dummy and Dyer obviously couldnt keep there stories straight. The maker obviously thought Rick wanted it to have an embalmed impression, or was just unaware of how taxidermy works. And Rick wanted it to be labeled as a piece of taxidermy. Either way it shows its fake. It literally is horrible, and even a piece of taxidermy from 100 years ago would never look this bad.
I can tell you from the taxidermy community this is not just laughable, its not even worth a second glance. But i thought i would share my experience in hopes to prevent people from being conned.
Thanks for your time
Rich
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