Whatever hates dogs in central Maine is back. It kills, it slices dogs’ throats, and it terrorizes the citizenry. Creepiest of all, eyewitnesses say it looks like a hyena!

During the summer of 2004, Lewiston Sun-Journal reporter Mark LaFlamme covered the story of a strange creature that was killing dogs. "It began in mid-August [2004]," wrote LaFlamme, "when a Wales [Maine] man reported that an unknown animal crept out of the woods behind his house and mauled his Doberman pinscher….Since that attack, people from Wales, Litchfield, Sabattus, Greene, Turner, Lewiston and Auburn have come forward to speak of a mystery creature."

During the wave of sightings in 2004, one animal control officer sighted the cryptid along Sawyer Road in Greene, Maine. Although the officer had years of experience with animals, he could not identify it. He told reporter LaFlamme only that it looked like a hyena to him, just as more than a dozen others had described it.

In the most recent incident, it happened again in Greene, a rural town outside of Lewiston, Maine. Reporter Mark LaFlamme recounted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005, in the Lewiston Sun-Journal:

"A dog found with a 10-inch gash across its throat in Greene on Monday may have been attacked by a wild animal, veterinary officials said Tuesday. The collie-shepherd mix was found wounded and bleeding on a porch at Allen Pond and Hooper roads. On Tuesday, the dog was recovering at the Lewiston Veterinary Hospital, but no one had come forward to claim it. And the nature of the animal’s wounds remained a mystery.

"We can’t say for sure that it was a wild animal," said Margaret McCloskey, a co-manager of the animal hospital on Stetson Road. "But something big and bad got at this dog."

In addition to the gash around the animal’s neck, the dog’s left front leg appeared to have been chewed on, McCloskey said. There was no indication that it was a person that caused the wounds.

"We’re pretty convinced that it’s a large-animal wound," McCloskey said.

Reporter LaFlamme interviewed me about this new attack, last night, and at the end of his article today, he open-mindedly included various candidates for the attack, from the mundane – coyote and badger – to the cryptozoological – mystery cat and Bigfoot. Due to the article, one couple has already emailed me details of a mystery cat sighting they had two years ago that took place near the recent dog incident. The case is ongoing, needless to say, and LaFlamme hopes to collect new details on the Greene mystery animal.

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See a November 18th update of this story by clicking here.