The American Werewolf: Interview with Adam Davis

One of my greatest passions, since becoming an investigator, has been researching the Michigan Dogman(Mandog)aka The American werewolf.
For those of you not familiar with legendary radio personality Steve Cook's site,please be sure to check out the video below. He has a new documentary available regarding the Michigan Dogman and all proceeds from the sale of "The Legend,Legacy Edition" go to help local animal shelters :



Also,be sure to check out Manwolf and Linda Godfrey's "Uncanny Radio" for news and updates regarding Mandog and many other creatures:
http://www.uncannyradio.com/
You'll be glad you tuned in. They have a lot of interesting guests,and Linda and Manwolf make the show a lot of fun as well as very informative.



For centuries,encounters with these beasts have abounded all across the midwest,including areas in and around a little town in Ohio called Farmersville,where fellow researcher/cryptozoologist Adam Davis resides and has had numerous personal experiences himself.






Without further adieu,I will allow Adam to tell you, in his own words, a bit of his personal history regarding this extraordinary legend. At the end of the history is a mini interview I conducted with him:













Please allow me to introduce myself,


My name is Adam Davis, and among other things, I am a
paranormaal researcher
and cryptozoologist. I live near Dayton, Ohio, between
Dayton and the Preble
County line near a small town called Farmersville. Many of
you I am sure,
are aware of the fact that Bigfoot is known to live in
Ohio, including in the
immediate area around Dayton. If you are not aware of it,
there is another
creature that dwells in Ohio, and seemingly, over most of
the Eastern US at
least. Some call it a Dogman, others Mandog, and some call
it the American
Werewolf. I have seen these creatures numerous times
personally, and have found
numerous tracks from them, as well as the remains of kills.
Others have seen
them as well, with their descriptions corresponding very
closely to what I
have seen, one person was actually on Coast to Coast AM
regarding his sighting,
where he saw one feeding on the carcass of a deer by the
road, describing it
as appearing very much like the werewolf from Van Helsing.
That was coming
from as he described himself "someone who never
believed in that kind of fairy
tale stuff", and now wishes he had never seen it.


I have recorded these creatures howling, as well as taken
measured pictures of
their tracks, which are bipedal, and much too large for any
dog to make, with
a print size of over 6.5" long by 5.5" wide, not
including claw imprints if
in a softer substrate.



My girlfriend and I have seen them
crouching and
standing, they are at least 7'6" tall, and would
weigh in at around the 450-500 lb
mark on average, with larger individuals weighing perhaps
600 at over 8'.
They are more "slender waisted" than a Bigfoot,
but are just as "chesty",
displaying very wide, powerful shoulders, and what appear
to be hands or hand-like
(perhaps like a raccoon?) forepaws with claws, that they
can use to tear
meat from a carcass or hold a smaller prey animal to feed
upon. Facially, the
reports vary a bit across the US in muzzle
length/appearance, however, from
what I have seen here and others have reported, they have a
large "triangular"
canine head and muzzle, with prominent ears and the teeth
are notable when its
mouth is open.

I have found "historical precedent" regarding the
existence of these
creatures, both in native american legends, and in settlers
records for the area.
The Native Americans considered the area where these things
were concentrated
to be "off limits", and anyone who ventured there
usually never came back,
while the settlers that moved into the area would have
encounters with them
mostly along the creeks, where often one or two people
would be snatched and
carried off, as the creek crossing would have to be taken
carefully lest an axle
or wheel on the wagon were to break and strand the wagon
and its people
entirely. This problem was curtailed for the most part when
they began building
covered bridges at the crossing points on the roads. It is
my opinion that in a
good number of cases, these things are sometimes being
mistaken for Bigfoot,
especially in the more aggressive encounters, and their
prints may be
overlooked, disregarded as merely dog prints, as a
researcher my be looking for
Bigfoot prints, and would be experiencing "tunnel
vision" in the search for
them.

Mandogs also have a very pervasive stench, likened
best to the smell of
rotting meat combined with dog feces and sulphur,not
unlike the smell I
have encountered when a Bigfoot was close while I was bow
hunting before, but
much less pleasant. They also have
"luminous" eyes, ranging from a sort
of yellow if it isn't looking directly at you, to a
deep glowing red, as I
have experienced when being stared at from the corn field
last year in August
that bordered the property on which I currently live,
thankfully they planted
soy beans this year.

I have also seen them sitting in
large natural
deadfalls as well as piles of brush that they had dragged
into a pile from smaller
deadfalls, presumably for cover during the winter to hunt
from, like a hunters
blind.
A short piece of background on myself and my experience- I
am 33, with over
25 years of tracking experience from starting in Boy Scouts
through my years
of hunting deer and other animals. I am intimately
familliar with the animals
that live in and around the Ohio area, what their prints
look like, what
they sound like, their habits, etc. This experience makes
it extremely difficult
for me to misidentify something out in the woods/wild.

There is a distinct possibility that, where the people are
unfamilliar with
what a Bigfoot looks like, or they didn't get a good
look at the creature(s)
involved, that certain sightings of Bigfoot, including the
so called "Ohio
Grassmen" may well be Mandogs hunting in a pack
formation. I have pictures of
the tracks from such a hunt in the snow this February,
where they had
evidently separated a deer from the group of three deer,
two of which ran across the
road in front of us, though we didn't find the kill
sight for the third deer.
Two Mandogs were involved from the tracks we found,
hunting in a team. It is
likely that they may well hunt in larger groups, based on
some of the times
I have heard them howling back and forth to one another.
there is no telling
how many there may be in Ohio alone, but there is
certainly enough wild game
and livestock to keep them happy, though I don't
believe that they would be
above an attack of opprotunity on a human, especially one
that they
considered as infringing on their territory.

Thank you for
your time. Please feel free
to email me at _jiro9cuts0001@aol.com_
(mailto:jiro9cuts0001@aol.com) if you
have any questions or comments that you want answered
personally.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mini interview with Adam :

RAVEN: Adam,first off Id like to thank you for doing this interview and allowing my readers and I the privilege to hear your story. You're a very warm,sincere person and I've really enjoyed getting to know a bit about you and having you share your mandog encounters with us.

What was your first encounter with the creatures like? Can you give us some detail on what it wouldve been like if we stood in your shoes on that night/day?

ADAM: Well, my first real encounter outside of hearing them howl while we were out looking for them at night and occasionally coming across their 'trail' where you could smell the gut wrenching stench these things have in the still night air, or carried on the breeze. It occured on October 19th of 2005, ironically enough, coming back home from a local haunted trail/house attraction in Middletown, OH. The conditions were clear, no fog, with bright full moonlight. We were heading north on Germantown-Liberty Rd, which dumps into Stacey Rd, later rejoining Germantown-Liberty Rd. We crossed onto Stacey Rd, going between 30 and 35 mph, and just after the first bend near a juniper tree, I saw something in my headlights, squatting/sitting in the ditch by the juniper. It was bigger than a man, and was covered with fur from head to toe, with a definite dog shaped head and large ears.



I watched in disbelief as we passed this thing, with my other 3 friends (whom usually accompanied me on our forays searching for these things) in the van also looking on in half awe, half hysteria, as it looked through the passenger side window of the van at us, its eyes a yellowish color reflecting the moonlight, its eyes and face about level with the middle of the window.



Its head looked bigger than a human's head, and was definitely canine, the ears even more apparent in lookingat it dead on. It was close enough, that if that window would have been open, my friend in the passenger seat could have reached out and touched it. As we passed it and the rear of the vehicle cleared the creature's position, I saw it get up and cross the road behind the van, its form blotted out the moonlight breifly as it stepped onto the road, and watching it in my side mirror, its third step carried it into the field on the other side of the road.



By that time, my heart was pounding half out of excitement and half out of fear from the pure size of the thing. I got a very good look at it as it crossed, and it was definitely walking bipedally, and digitigrade, and stood well over the height of the van, in the neighborhood of around 7'6", if I had to guess, it would probably have weighed in the neighborhood of 450-475 lbs, based on the size of deer I have skinned and dressed out in the past, some in excess of 300 lbs. I couldn't tell if a tail was present or not, and couldn't make out a lot of real detail of the "hands"/forepaws, but I saw what I thought to be at least two or three fingers on one of the forelimbs of the creature. The other thing that struck me, was how wide its shoulders were, my shoulders are pretty wide from a human perspective, but this things shoulders were absolutely massive, at least 3 or 4 inches wider than my own, which are about 26" wide. We went back to the spot the next day to look for signs of the crossing, prints, scat (feces), etc. and aside from finding a depressed area about 24" in diameter in the weeds of the ditch next to the juniper where it was sitting/squating, we found no other traces, due to the heavy weeds in the fields on either side of the road at the time. My one friend (whom is a bit taller than I am at 6'2", he is almost 6'4") attempted to do what it did, squatting in the ditch which was about 12" deep, then getting up and crossing the road in 3 steps (it placed one foot on the road coming out of the ditch, then took a step placing both feet on the road, then the next step took it off the road beyond the ditch on the other side), and couldn't cross the road like that in less than 5 steps. The road is about 12 feet wide, and it crossed from a spot 2 feet off the road where it was sitting, to a spot 3 feet off the other side of the road, a distance of some 17 to 18 feet. He even atttempted to do it at as much of a run as he could get from the starting position and couldn't do it in less than 5 steps. I defy any normal human to reproduce that feat, much less in some sort of suit. That was my first, "real encounter", up close with one of these mandog creatures.


RAVEN: That's quite an encounter!

In your opinion,do you feel this creature is more aggressive than Bigfoot?

ADAM: To be honest, yes I do, based primarily on what I have read in accounts from settlers records, and the fact that the Shawnee that used to live in the Miami Valley up to the time of Techumseh, considered the northern part of the valley close to the headwaters of the Little Miami, Mad, Great Miami, and Stillwater rivers to be a "taboo" area to go into, as these things were well known to them, and they were known to dwell there. When white settlers came in and founded the towns of Bellefontaine, Greenville, Piqua, Sidney, Versailles, Urbana, and Ansonia, to name off the main towns up that way, they had a serious problem, according to settlers records, with these things picking people off at creek and river crossings, either from horseback or off wagons. This continued until covered bridges were built, which allowed a wagon or a rider on horseback to mmaintain speed and not have to slow down and ease into the water, the way they would have to do in fording the river or creek. They still had incidents, but they were reduced considerably. I've seen records of aggressive activity dated up through the 1970's though, with attacks on cars and the like travelling over the roads the covered bridges were on, usually receiving several scratches and dents from the creatures attempting to get in at the occupants. Then there are the missing animals, dogs mostly, as most people have a greater emotional attachement to dogs, they are more readily missed than most animlas like cats that tend to wander anyhow. I'm not just talking about small dogs either, that people let out to go do their business and could run off on their own, but large breeds, usually kept on a chain or in a kennel outside coming up missing. The dogs are usually never seen again, and in some instances, their collars are found still attached to the chain, which is something that would be unusual for a dog that is well used to being on a tie out, like it was pulled off over the dogs head. I could see one of these things seeing a domestic dog as an easy meal, fresh meat would be a naturally better choice over roadkill, and it would be easier to deal with than a live deer, which is much stronger than an average large dog. The same thing with goats and sheep, easy meals. They also seem to aggressively chase off coyotes when they come into the area, I will hear a group of coyotes start a chorus howl up, then hear one or more of the mandogs start a howl, immediately shutting up the coyotes. You usually don't hear from the coyotes for a month or more until they wander back to this area, "testing the waters" so to speak. I don't know if they go after the coyotes or not, as I've never seen the aftermath of such a confrontation, and likely never will unless I happen to be there at the time, which would be too close for comfort. Then there are some of my more direct encounters with them along the edge of the property here. They seem to seek out contact with humans occasionally, why I'm not sure, I don't know if they are gauging our reactions to them, as they are definitely a lot smarter than any dog or wolf, or if they are considering an attack on a human again, as we are obviously easy prey for them, as demonstrated in the past. They seem to have enough sense to stay around 50 yards or so away from buildings, due to the outside security lights, as evidenced by where you will see roadkill lay until it decays away, but everywhere else, if you see it when it's hit, it is usually gone overnight. You will often see blood smears on the road in the morning, but no animal where the traces are, carried off by one of these things for a meal. For now it seems they are sated with what they can hunt down and what is fresh on the road. I hope it stays that way. This much I do know, if the Shawnee didn't want to mess with them, they have to be pretty nasty to begin with.


RAVEN: Sounds like the turkey vultures and coyotes may have some stiff competition when it comes to dining at the 'Roadkill Cafe'. I wouldnt want to fight a Mandog for a meal,that's for sure!

Which leads me to my last question...
Environmentally speaking,do you think these creatures fit into the natural order of things? Or do you believe they are a product of deliberate mutation and experimentation? There seems to have been some pretty heated debate on this topic in the recent past.

ADAM: Hah, speaking of turkey vultures, I found one picking over a carcass that had been evidently dropped in the middle of the road one day, denuded of all flesh and missing two limbs, likely dropped as something was crossing the road and was finished with its meal. That's another story that leads to another encounter. Now, to your question. Honestly, I think that is a yes and no answer. Yes, the fit "now", only because they have been around for what I would estimate to be several millenia, perhaps as long as millions of years. The Native Americans have mentioned creatures like these and others of this nature (being half man, half animal) since the "begining". Many other cultures have records in one form or another, along with long held stories of them. That is aside from the so called "skinwalkers" and such. They have been here so long from what I can derive from legends and such, that the world has adapted to their presence. Even Biblical scriptures mention things of this nature in passing, that "the seed of man was once mingled with that of all manner of beasts of the field", mostly in the older texts where the Old Testament comes from, and those which it came from, the Tablets of Babylon, which mention the "Annu Naki", which from what little I know of Hebrew, translates into Elohim, literally meaning "those who came from above", whom are said to have been the Children of God, or angels. So, in that aspect, I would have to say no, they aren't naturally evolved creatures, but created through some form of genetic manipulation, be it through a lab, or other more, arcane, means. My personal opinion on this, is that they may have been created by whatever means, to be used as "war dogs" or "shock troops", sent out ahead of the first wave of whatever dark army that used them, to wreak havoc and give a "shock and awe" effect against whomever they were fighting. To give a sort of reference, I'll turn to Hollywood for a moment. I'm sure that you and most of our readers are familliar wiith the Lord of the Rings trilogy that came out a few years ago. If you will recall, during the "fall of Isengard", the wizard of that tower began building an army for the Dark Lord. In the pits carved into the earth by the orcs and goblin men, they bred the Uruk Hai, a sort of "super orc" or "Super Soldier", made from the material of orcs and something else. They also had "pit bred" the Wargs, the huge hyena type creatures the orcs used as mounts for calvary. This would represent the "arcane" means of creating a cross bred creature, of the nature that I believe the mandogs (in their biological form) to be. Whether these things have any preternatural abilities gained from such a pairing or combination has yet to be really figured out, as many people have suggested that their ability to "disappear" at will is due to their being of supernatural nature (i.e. not biological but spiritual in their nature, as a tulpa or summoned spirit would be). I say this, there may be some of a supernatural nature out there, but they aren't going to require food or shelter, nor leave clear signs of their passing such as prints, hair, and scat. Most encounters happen in, near, or around dense underbrush and forest, and to my knowledge, most people that have seen them haven't thought of going to look for prints themselves, and aren't about to out of fear based on what they saw, and many are unwilling to talk about it until much later, well after any traces are washed away by the weather. As for the ones that do get reported soon after and a search for traces is conducted, there is the fact of undergrowth again to deal with, as well as the fact that we don't know what the physical capabilites of these things are (much less the esoteric capabilites if any). I have heard reports of these things being able to keep up with a vehicle going over 55 to 60 mph, so who knows how high or far one would be able to leap if it wanted to, which would definitely stop a trail cold for most trackers, only to start up again, perhaps, 50 or more feet away? A deer can go at a dead run of over 40 mph for a couple miles at least, and can leap over a 10 foot chain link fence, and they have a horizontal leap of over 20 feet. Consider that as a benchmark, in relating to what equates to be a very large, very fast, and very intelligent predator, that can easily overtake a deer when it wants to. Natural in origin, I don't think so. Natural now due to their having been here so long, yes. And like other predators, their numbers may well be limited by what nature can support, unlike how we as humans have adapted and developed such technologies as to proliferate and dominate the earth in such numbers, that the only creatures that really outnumber us are fish, insects, rodents, and birds.

RAVEN: Very interesting concepts,Adam. You give us a lot of food for thought as we end this interview. Thank you again for your time. It was an honor to have you here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Interestingly,Adam discovered the following three photos on GOOGLE EARTH that can be found at the coordinates of N 39deg. 40' 57" by W 84 deg. 22' 40" if anyone would like to check them out and zoom in on them yourself.(I encourage you to do so.You can see the shape as well as size of the creatures when you zoom in on them)
They seem to show what could possibly be two mandogs in a field close to where Adam resides.














Here are two links to click on that zoom them up a little closer for you:
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/8038/mandogfield1dr8.jpg
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8130/mandogfield2rw0.jpg

I hope you enjoyed reading this interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it. Adam is very knowlegable,sincere,and a joy to talk to. I would love to interview him again in the future for an update.



Until next time,my fledglings!

Your Mistress of the Mysterious,
Raven