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Monday August 14, 2006

Bigfoot prints out

By MARSHA TAN

marsha@thestar.com.my

CONCRETE PROOF?: The JWPA has released this photo, which it claimed showed the authentic footprints of Bigfoot, to The Star recently.
JOHOR BARU: The Johor Wildlife Protection Association (JWPA) has released photos of what it claims to be footprints of Bigfoot to clarify its involvement in the recent “photo” fiasco.

On Aug 4, local Bigfoot discussion website www.johorhominid.org had released a photo of what it claimed was the actual photo of a female Bigfoot’s eyes, adding that it had obtained JWPA’s permission to use it.

The website claimed that the photo of a creature with bulging bloodshot eyes “is a big breakthrough”, but when a visitor posted a link to the full-head shot of the creature, the website closed an hour later, with a notice stating that it was down for maintenance.

The next day, its founders Vincent Chow and Sean Ang said the website had been closed permanently and announced that they had exposed the photograph as a hoax through their website.

It was revealed that the photo was from L’Odyssee de l’espece (A Species Odyssey), which is the companion book for the television documentary of the same name, first released in French in 2001.

“The photo was given to us by a man named Michael Yap. He is currently in Australia and voluntarily gave us the photo before he left.

“He did not say where he got it or what it was but it did look very similar to our sightings. The authenticity of the photo was never confirmed,” said Wee Pao Chin, a committee member of the JWPA.

On Thursday, Wee said the association was currently in the midst of trying to get in touch with Yap to find out how he obtained the photograph.

Wee said the association had real photographs of Bigfoot – taken by its members – and which would be released in a book to be published soon.

Wee then released what he claimed were the “real photographs stamped and acknowledged by the association” to The Star.

The photos, which he claimed showed the authentic footprints of Bigfoot, were taken by a person named Kong Oi Peng.

Wee said the footprints were spotted near Sungai Lenggo at the foot of Gunung Sumalayang in Kahang, Kluang.

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