Cryptozoology

I spent an hour or so browsing cryptozoology websites last night, part of the research for my work-in-progress. Whether you consider cryptozoology a science or an art (art as in the study of mythology and lore), it's fascinating. On one hand, how can bigfoot exist when no hard evidence has been found? On the other hand, if bigfoot doesn't exist, then why are the legends so cross-cultural (almost every continent has a version of bigfoot).

And what about National Geographic Animal News? http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/photogalleries/101006-papua-new-guinea-species-tube-nosed-bat-science-animal-pictures/   New animal species are discovered with surprising regularity. Perhaps crypto creatures are out there and we just have found them yet.

There is a bigfoot legend in Kentucky, where my family is from (one of the "monster-hunter" type shows recently did an eposide on it). I personally know people in Kentucky who claim to have seen it. One witness claims the "thing" was watching from a rock on the side of a hill while her sisters played in the valley, not far from the field where she herself was working. The thing had long, shaggy, cinnamon-colored hair, and was laying on its stomach on the rock, watching the small children play. When it looked over and noticed the older sister watching it from the field, the thing stood up on two legs and walked back into the woods. 

Another witness I know said that his coon dogs we're making a wild noise in the woods one night, like they had treed a raccoon--but the noises were extra loud and extra vicious (not just the usual baying). Worried that they might have cornered a bear, he grabbed his gun and went to check on them. He found them not too far from the house, dancing around a thing he said looked like a giant orangatang. The dogs would jump at the thing and the thing would just swat them out of the air. As he drew closer, gun raised, the thing grabbed one of the dogs, stuffed it in it's jaws, and ran deeper into the woods (on two legs), the dog screaming the whole way.

I'm not sure what to think about these accounts. These are people I know well and know are credible people.

So what do you think? Could bigfoot be real?