I am posting this in hopes that the listener who sent it to me will contact me back. I tried to respond to his email and I received a “return to sender error.” I removed the first portion of his email as he did not want to be identified.
I agree with the listener there are too many consistent witness reports of an upright canine, to ignore it. Not everyone feels like this and I know Dan was not prepared for the question and I am sure he had no ill intent with his answer.
The listener writes “I’ve been an avid rock climber for years, and solo climb in very remote parts of the country (and in others as well). A fellow climber had brought the “Missing 411” series to my attention a few years ago and while not dissuading me from going out alone, I now do so rather well prepared ballistically (or at least as one can be).
I happen to be in the four corners area at the moment wrapping up a trip, and caught your podcast for the first time while searching for something to listen to out here during the drive out. You seem to do an excellent job, and I plan on listening to other episodes as time permits in the future.
To get to the reason for this email, your guest (I believe it was a Dan Baker) seemed dismissive of the possibility that upright canids may exist. In my humble opinion this is a rather dangerous notion to promote, as I have encountered one of these things and can attest that at least in this instance they are very much real. If the one that I had a stand-off with at no more than twenty feet is any indication, these things are absolute killing machines.
For the record, I have never touched a recreational drug of any ever and also race vintage sportscars, shoot competitively and in general am engaged in activities that require a very high degree of concentration and observation. Whatever it was that I saw was categorically not ape-like or hominid, was bipedal and over eight feet tall (I measured the exact spot where it stood the following day). I’d conservatively estimate the eight to have between 450-500lbs. The head was entirely canine in appearance, and it’s arms (like the rest of it) were heavily muscled and ended in actual hands with long fingers and claws. It seemed very aggressive, and I strongly believe that if not for the cannon that I carry into climbing areas (which totally sucks in terms of added weight), that I very well may not be in a position to be writing to you.
I realize that this is (intentionally) rather scarce in terms of detail, however to be frank it pissed me off to hear someone espousing the existence of Bigfoot/Sasquatch while being so dismissive of the possibility of something else that shares the same space. I can attest that there is at least one of these creatures “out there”, and people need to be careful as I have no doubt that this thing would have taken me out had I not been so lucky (the custom shortened Barret M82 seemed to have caught it’s attention). No shots were fired, and the damn thing shocked me so much that I’m not sure that I would have hit it.
Anyway, sorry this was so long. Feel free to use this if it could somehow be of any help to someone, and perhaps politely let Mr. Baker know that he may want to be a bit less myopic.”