The hunt is on for Bigfoot in Texas

By Bud Kennedy

bud@star-telegram.com

If the Lake Worth Monster ever comes back, he'd better lie low.

In a decision that has reverberated from Outdoor Life to Fox News, Texas game wardens say it's legal to shoot a monster, sasquatch or Bigfoot.

Never mind that nobody has ever seen a monster, sasquatch or Bigfoot.

That doesn't matter to the "researchers," who are still analyzing the grainy 1969 photograph of a "monster" on Shoreline Road here and arguing whether it shows a furry beast or some prankster under a shag carpet.

Apparently, the Lake Worth Monster was just ahead of his or her time.

Lately, Bigfoot is bigger than ever.

The Animal Planet show Finding Bigfoot has stirred an industry of "researchers," hunts and even guided tours.

Since a Waco-based hunter took a wild shot at a fleeing fur ball last year in eastern Oklahoma, hobbyists have debated whether hunting Bigfoot is legal.

Some states allow hunting only listed species. But in an e-mail last week, a Texas Parks and Wildlife official wrote that it's OK to hunt "non-protected, non-game wildlife" on rural land with permission.

Tough luck, Big.

(By the way, there's no Bigfoot bag limit.)

Craig Woolheater of Mansfield co-founded what is now the Plano-based Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy hobbyist group and also owns Cryptomundo.com.

"I could never shoot one," he said Tuesday.

"But Bigfoot is like Tony Romo. Either you love him or you hate him. With Bigfoot, either you want to protect him or you want one as a specimen."

The Bigfoot blitz is causing some to "get restless," he said.

Outdoor Life writer Gayne C. Young of Fredericksburg posed the question to readers: "Would You Shoot Bigfoot?" Surprisingly, many said no.

"If anyone ever finds this thing, it'll be a hunter," Young said.

Or a TV crew.

Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

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Twitter: @budkennedy

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