If we found a cryptid?

Watching the Nessie movie on Sci-fi, "Beneath Loch Ness", I'm driven to ask:

Would we really kill it?

Obviously, movies play on the 'we versus the monster' theme, but considering the possibility that any crypid is almost by definition an endangered species, do we even have any right to try and kill them?

In the movie today, it's evident they had to give the creature a history of killing humans and being dangerous to Loch users, but all we'd have to do is stay out of the water.

I'd like to think that if we did meet any cryptid, we'd not only protect them, but consider keeping the location secret, so as to shield them from interference.

To my mind, no cryptid poses any large scale threat to the population, so we've no cause to either kill, or interfere, or even reveal they're there.

Just a thought.


[edit on 30-8-2008 by Badge01]

I saw a Bigfoot show the other day on the history channel (I think it was H.C).
Several people were wondering around in some pretty thick woods and there wasn't much light. They heard noises and thought they saw something moving between the trees behind them. So guess what they did? Someone pulled out a gun and fired it several times in the direction of the movement and noise.
Yep! They shot at what they couldn't even see. Just imagine how many clips they would have unloaded if a real Bigfoot crossed their path.

If any of these mystery animals are real I hope we never find one. They would be slaughtered and dissected. Of course, I think there is law that protects the Loch Ness Monster. I could be wrong but I think an actual law exists.

I don't know. It's certainly something to ponder. In the case of a lake monster, or something like chupacabra, I probably wouldn't hesitate too much to kill it. Nothing else is going to be proof these days, as photo and video evidence are consistently discounted; they are just too easy to fake these days. So it seems that only a genuine dead body will serve to prove the creature exists. And there has to be a breeding population; no one creature could have lived this long.

The real dilemma would be encountering a Bigfoot/Sasquatch while armed. On the one hand, there aren't many believable cases of Sasquatch being aggressive to humans, and the issue of how "human" they are has already come up. Would killing one be murder?

On the other hand, there have been too many hoaxes and fakes. Probably nothing short of a carcass is going to prove their existence, and until their existence is proven they won't collectively be protected. And there's the fame and money to be made by being the one to "bag" a real Bigfoot.

I have to admit, as much of a pacifist as I normally am, and as much as I care about animals, I'd be tempted. What decision I would actually make if the moment arrived .. I don't know. Most likely we'll never find out. Of course some people wouldn't hesitate a second, and some probably couldn't shoot it no matter what. So I suppose that who finds it, as well as the circumstances, will matter as much to the outcome as anything else.

In one sense it will be a sad day if and when a dead cryptid (especially if it's Bigfoot) is presented to science and the world, but on the other hand it will be a day of much satisfaction for all of us who have believed to finally be able to say "We told you so!!"

Cryptids have been found, though the big guns, as you will, Big Foot, Nessie, are not the kind we would find.
In some cases, they are found when native tribes sell the critter's hides to the scientists, and they get the relevant hunting sites.