by Cole Herrold
Outside of Lake, River, and Sea Monsters, Europe is surprisingly devoid of cryptids. There, of course, are famous encounters like the Beast of Gevaudan, the famous cryptid canine that killed countless women in children in the French countryside, and the Owlman of Mawnan England's answer to the Mothman, yet these creatures, if legends are to be believed is not the only strange creature reported to dwell in the European countryside. Reports of a strange venomous mammalian reptile were reported during the Medieval Times in France. This strange chimeral beast may seem like fiction, but some cryptozoologists have entertained the notion that what was reported in French legend was, in fact, a living creature.
My first encounter with the strange beast
known as the Peluda came from the Cartoon Network show Secret
Saturdays. A show about cryptozoologists protecting, researching, and
hiding the existence of cryptids. It was an ambitious show at the time and
extremely fun to watch, and in one particular episode where the hero Zak
Saturday and his family raid the villain V.V. Argost's lair full of cryptids,
they encounter a shaggy hair covered beast that, when sighting the hero
suddenly revealed a reptile head and long quills. I was fascinated by this
creature as it didn't seem to match any cryptid I had known. A quick search on
the show's wiki website led to the confirmation that the creature was the
Peluda.
