I can hardly believe that this is the fourteenth time that I have sat down in the first week of December to write my annual report. A heck of a lot has changed, both for the CFZ and for me personally, since I first sat down to write an account of what the CFZ had achieved in the previous year.

We have gone from being a small, benign, and – if I am to be completely honest – pretty ineffectual organisation of about 100 people, to being the world’s largest cryptozoological research organisation, with over 400 members, and hundreds more sympathisers across the world. We have the world’s largest dedicated fortean zoological publishing house CFZ Press, and our own multi-media website CFZtv.

OVERVIEW

In the past year we have published nineteen books, with two more – the 2009 Yearbook, and Neil Arnold’s Mystery Animals of Kent - due early in 2009. We have published four issues of Exotic Pets, and three issues of Animals & Men. We have produced 12 editions of On the Track, our monthly webTV show, ranging between 18 and 32 minutes in length, and a feature-length documentary, with two others in the pipeline. We promoted our ninth annual conference, and had the entire thing - all seventeen hours of it - available on CFZtv within a week. We also helped present the 2008 Big Cats in Britain Conference and presented that in its entirety on CFZtv. We finished building work on our museum, and carried out a three-week expedition to southern Russia, within weeks of the entire area becoming a war zone.

At the risk of sounding too self-congratulatory, I think that we have done quite well this year.

YEARBOOKS

The year started with personal tragedy as my father-in-law died at Christmas, and much of January was spent helping tie up the loose ends of his estate. We then threw ourselves into the tortuous exercise of republishing the CFZ Yearbooks from between 1996 and 2003. I am ashamed to say that some of them were a disgrace, with typographical and formatting errors beyond our wildest dreams. However, in our defence, I must say that we were one of the few organisations in the world, who – with a core team of just three people, and from 2001 a part time office assistant – would have embarked on such an ambitious exercise with no funding. And also with no way of publishing them apart from a photocopier and a comb binding machine. I am not sure whether we were being brave, or just stupid! However, the process of reformatting them for the 21st Century, and upgrading them to the professional standards of production that is the norm for us these days, has been a remarkably complicated job. The first three – 1996, 1997 and 1998 – have been presented as facsimile editions, with most of the typographical and print errors removed, and the images updated where possible, but the others (1999, 2000-1, 2002, 2003, and 2004) were re-typeset from scratch.

This was a horrible job, and was not finished until the end of May. In the meantime, we are proud to have published the 2008 Yearbook, the Guyana Expedition Report, another volume of collected editions of Animals & Men, a remarkable book by Michael Woodley - a remarkable young man, of whom more later - and the 2008 Big Cats in Britain Yearbook. This was the third of these volumes that was produced for them by us. However, the BCIB group have decided to produce the 2009 volume themselves, which is – of course – their prerogative, and we wish them well with this and other future endeavours.

The 2009 Yearbook is being collated as I write, and will be published early in January. The contents include:

Italian Cryptozoology by Neil Arnold
The black tapir of Brevet - a Malayan mystery beast
resurrected by Dr Karl P. N. Shuker
The mystery animals of Montana by Michael Newton
The Tarasque by Richard Muirhead
Spiritualism and UFO Mythology David Waldron
The hominology of the Human species by Michael A. Woodley
The Northern NSW Mystery Animal by Gary Opit
CFZ:USA - annual report by Nick Redfern
CFZ:Australia - annual report by Ruby Lang/Mike Williams
2008 - A year in the life of the CFZ by Jonathan Downes

Plus

Winged Sea Serpents by Theo Pajimans And more…..

MYSTERY ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLES

In June we launched a new series of books - `The Mystery Animals of the British Isles`. The first book in the series was by our old friend Mike Hallowell, and covers Northumberland and Tyneside. We eventually hope to cover the whole of the British Isles, including Ireland. However, in order to protect delicate political sensibilities, the volumes covering both Eire and Northern Ireland will probably be titled `The Mystery Animals of Ireland`.

Future volumes planned include:

The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Kent by Neil Arnold (due December 2008)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Co. Durham and Teeside by Mike Hallowell (2009)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Staffordshire by Nick Redfern (2009)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Greater London by Neil Arnold (2009)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Western Isles by Glen Vaudrey (2009)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: West Midlands by Dr Karl Shuker (2010)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Dorset by Jonathan McGowan (2010)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Sussex by Neil Arnold (2010)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Devon by Jonathan Downes (2010)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: South Wales by Oll Lewis (2010)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Mid Wales by Oll Lewis (2011)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: North Wales by Oll Lewis (TBA)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Cornwall by Jon Downes (TBA)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Yorkshire by Richard Freeman (TBA)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Suffolk by Matt Salusbury (TBA)
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Gloucestershire and Worcestershire by Paul Williams (TBA)

The Irish volumes will, at present, be divided up between Ronan Coghlan and Gary Cunningham, but - as yet - there are no dates or further information scheduled. If anyone reading this would like to volunteer to write any further volumes for this series, please get in touch with your suggestions.

OTHER BOOKS

Also during 2008 we published the following `stand alone` titles:

· In the Wake of Bernard Heuvelmans by Karl Shuker and Michael A Woodley

Ever since humankind first ventured out onto the oceans, sailors came back with stories of sea monsters. For two hundred years, scientists have been attempting to classify these 'creatures' within an acceptable zoological frame of reference. The most important of these was produced by Professor Bernard Heuvelmans half a century ago. Michael Woodley, takes a look at Heuvelmans' classification model, re-examines it in the light of new discoveries in palaeontology and ichthyology over the past fifty years, and reaches some astounding conclusions.

· The Island of Paradise: Chupacabra, UFO Crash Retrievals, and Accelerated Evolution on the Island of Puerto Rico by Jonathan Downes

In his first book of original research for four years, Jon Downes visits the Antillean island of Puerto Rico, to which he has led two expeditions - in 1998 and 2004. Together with noted researcher Nick Redfern he goes in search of the grotesque vampiric chupacabra, believing that it can - finally - be categorised within a zoological frame of reference rather than a purely paranormal one. Along the way he uncovers mystery after mystery, has a run in with terrorists, art historians, and even has his garden buzzed by a UFO. By turns both terrifying and funny, this remarkable book is a real tour de force by one of the world's foremost cryptozoological researchers.

· Dr Shuker's Casebook by Dr Karl Shuker

Compiled here for the very first time, are some of the extraordinary cases that Karl has re-examined or personally explored down through the years - from sky beasts and reptoids, statues that weep, bleed, and even come to life, vanishing planets and invisible saints, frog rain and angel hair, and the world's weirdest ghosts and aliens, to a chiming tower of porcelain and a talking head of brass, spooklights and foo fighters, Herne the Hunter and photographed thought-forms, the chirping pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, magical mirrii dogs Down Under, and the most comprehensive study ever published of winged cats in which he successfully unveils their long-debated cryptic identity.

· Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals on Stamps - A Worldwide Catalogue by Karl P.N Shuker

This invaluable book will undoubtedly encourage everyone with a passion for dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures to pursue it not only on screen, in books, or in museums but also via the ever-fascinating world of philately.

NEXT YEAR’S TITLES

Next year, as well as the 2010 Yearbook, and the volumes in the Mystery Animals of the British Isles series listed above, we plan to publish volumes four and five of our collected editions of Animals & Men, taking the series up to, and including #25 which was published in 2001. As a result of this, when current stocks of back issues of the magazine run out, issues 1-25 will not be reprinted in magazine form, although issues 26 onwards (we are currently at #45) will still remain available. This is purely because of lack of warehousing space.

We shall also be publishing a number of other volumes including:

Giant Snakes by Michael Newton
Tales from the CFZ by Nick Redfern
The Madness of Butterflies by Jonathan Downes
The Yellow Peril by Richard Muirhead
In Search of Prehistoric Survivors (updated) by Dr Karl Shuker
The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia – an A-Z of Japanese Monsters by Richard Freeman
Lytham and Booze by Tony `Doc` Shiels
Monstrum (new ed.) by Tony `Doc` Shiels

We also intend to publish a series of books in conjunction with our magazine Exotic Pets, including books by Graham Smith and others.

RUSSIA EXPEDITION

In June, we sent a five-man expedition to the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in search of the fabled almasty or Russian Wildman. The expedition, which was partially funded by a generous donation from Professor Bryan Sykes, of Oxford Ancestors Ltd, and Wolfson College, Oxford, lasted for three weeks and was – to a certain extent at least – a success. They returned with bone, hair and scat samples. Several sets of material have been sent off for analysis, and the first set of results have come back. Sadly, the hair samples, taken from a `nest` high in the mountains, turned out to be of human origin.

We await the results of the rest of the sample analyses with interest. The book of the expedition was published in late November, and a feature length film is in preparation.

WEIRD WEEKEND 2008

In August we held our ninth annual convention, and the third to be held at Woolfardisworthy Community Centre. The following speakers appeared:

Matt Salusbury, Geoff Ward, Richard Freeman, Jonathan Downes, Ronan Coghlan, Dr Karl Shuker, Jon McGowan, Mike Hallowell, Dr Gail-Nina Anderson, Dr Mike Dash, Tim Matthews, Richard Ingram, Chris Moiser, Oll Lewis, Michael A Woodley. There were exhibitions from Rebecca McGowan-Griffin, Metamorphosis, and Ben Leese.

CFZ Award winners were: Mrs Marjorie Braund, Dr Karl Shuker, Adam Davies, Ronan Coghlan, Simon and Sharon Bennett

We would like to particularly thank David and Joanne Curtis, who not only came down from Co Durham at their own expense, but spent the whole weekend running a range of children’s activities, which they financed themselves. Thank you, my dears, from the bottom of my heart.

WEIRD WEEKEND 2009

Next year’s event will be held on 15-17 August 2009. Speakers confirmed so far include:

Nick Redfern, Max Blake, Andy Roberts, Richard Freeman, Jonathan Downes, Ronan Coghlan, Dr Karl Shuker, Jon McGowan, Tim Matthews, Oll Lewis, Michael A Woodley, Paul `Mr Biffo` Rose, Neil Arnold, and more to be confirmed soon.

CFZ OUTREACH

Things are changing at the CFZ. We have to adapt to the times, but although our remit remains the same; to study cryptozoology and allied disciplines, and to educate the public about these subjects, we are changing the way we do it. CFZ Press and CFZtv will remain unchanged. We are, however, launching two new branches, and making changes to a third.

· Museum Outreach

The CFZ Museum will remain in its current location, but we are rapidly becoming aware that we simply do not have enough space there to exhibit all that we want to. Whilst it would be a fantastic thing to have premises large enough for us to be able to site the whole museum under one roof, we accept that given the present state both of our finances, and of the global economy as a whole, this is unlikely to happen any time soon, if ever.

So we have decided to adopt a radical new approach. During 2009 we will start facilitating permanent and semi-permanent exhibitions in pubs, hotels, holiday centres, and tourist attractions across the region. This will allow us to invest in museum exhibits to a greater extent than we would otherwise have been able to, and will – we believe – act as a consciousness raising programme.

· Educational outreach

In the last six months we have had several encounters with young people, which have, frankly, horrified us. For example:

a. A 17 year old boy with eight GCSEs who was brought to me by his mother because "he wanted to be a zoologist". It turned out that he actually wanted to draw pokemon characters, but had seen an eagle at a falconry display and thought that it looked nice. He did not know the difference between reptiles, amphibians and fish.
b. A 13 year old who has won a scholarship to a public school who could not name any of the continents on a map, and did not know that most reptiles lay eggs, or that the thing that distinguishes mammals is that they produce milk.
c. A 20-something year old graduate who told me, pompously, that "It was a pity that I had not gone to university, or I would have known that these days China and Indo China are considered to be the same thing".
d. Another graduate who didn't know that St John's Gospel was in the New Testament, or that our present monarch was the daughter of King George VI. His excuse for this was that "he wasn't either a Christian or a Monarchist".
e. Two qualified (presumably) classroom assistants who thought that pumas and lynx were found indigenously in the UK.
f. A teenage girl studying sciences for GCSE who did not know what the binomial system of classification was, and had no idea what a chromosome was.
g. A teenage boy with 8 GCSEs who didn't know what I meant by `New World` and thought that Columbus had gone on to discover Australia, and whose teacher had TOLD him that Cyrano de Bergerac was set in the Middle Ages.

We feel that the biggest cause of such lamentable levels of pure ignorance is an educational system that teaches kids to pass exams, but little else, and which certainly does nothing to foster a joy of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. We intend to do a little bit to change that.

We are launching a community project with various community groups, which will feature kids, the long term unemployed and the disabled. We intend to visit schools and institutions with a multimedia roadshow, mixing theatre, film, science and art.

· Natural History Outreach

Natural History is no longer seen as a suitable hobby for young people, but in many cases is now an illegal one. A colleague of mine who works for the BBC Natural History Unit told me that children making a documentary on pond dipping were forced to wear safety helmets and rubber gloves before they were allowed near a garden pond. It is now illegal to take frogspawn from your own garden pond and put it in a fishtank. Changing social mores have meant that most of the children of people I know sit indoors all day playing computer games rather than exploring what little countryside is left. This may seem trivial to you, but Darwin, Linneaus, Mendel, and Gerald Durrell, amongst many others, were amateur naturalists first and foremost. Most professional zoologists started off as amateur naturalists. If kids are no longer able, or encouraged, to do this is it any wonder most of them seem to want to grow up to be image consultants or TV presenters?

We intend, again utilising kids, the long term unemployed and the disabled, to carry out a string of community projects over the next two years, aimed at raising children’s interest in Natural History. This is something that we are already doing with Exotic Pets magazine, but we intend to expand our activities and target groups.

· Partnerships in Conservation

Over the last year of so, we have been travelling around the country looking at various zoos. And one thing that is becoming increasingly obvious is that most of them have exactly the same animals in them. The only real difference is that they are better exhibited in some zoos than others. This is - of course - a generalisation, but if you look hard enough you will see what we mean. Every zoo we have visited has at least three of the following species:

Bennett’s wallaby
Parma wallaby
Coati
Meerkat
Ring-tailed lemur

This is largely because of the burgeoning amount of government (both UK, and European) legislation on the matter, as well as the code of conduct for members of BIAZA (The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums). Nobody would deny that the concept behind this legislation is sound enough. There is no justification, for example, for zoos selling their surplus stock for financial profit. But the legislation is - like so much Govermental action - completely ill thought out, and is going to lead to a complete stultification of the zoo establishment in the United Kingdom if something is not done about it.

Something that we find even more peculiar, is that although there are equally swingeing laws governing the private animal keepers,there are animals which are kept within the private sector which can never be seen in any zoo, despite the fact that they would make fine, and educational, exhibits.

There are animals in the CFZ museum collection, for example, which cannot be seen in any zoo, and really should be. We have therefore come up with what we believe to be an innovative new idea, and are in the process of launching what we call `The Partners in Conservation Initiative”. We are actively seeking ongoing relationships with conservation and animal welfare organisations in the private sector.

In this way we can showcase the invaluable work done by these organisations, help to publicise their activities, and work together with them to educate the general public as to how they can get involved with research and conservation work around the world, before it is too late to save what is left of our planet We are at present in talks with several non-commercial organisations within the private sector, with the aim of launching the first couple of these partnership agreements before the beginning of the next season.

WHY THE OUTREACH PROGRAMME?

We believe that fortean zoology is a perfect catalyst to help the aims of both the Educational Outreach, and Natural History Outreach programmes. One of the reasons that we have spent so much of the last seventeen years trying to steer cryptozoology and the allied disciplines which make up the portmanteau discipline of `Fortean Zoology` away from the cod-spirituality and New Age nonsense of the `Mind, Body and Spirit` brigade, is that we believe that these subjects – especially cryptozoology in its purest form – deserve to be taken seriously as scientific disciplines.

To misquote the oft used line from Hamlet there IS more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in the philosophy of much modern science, and certainly than is included in the cynical mishmash that is much of the National Curriculum. We believe that, although a great deal of what is written about cryptozoology, especially on the internet, is nonsense, a great deal isn’t. We believe that through learning about myths and monsters, and how some of them may be true, and others most certainly are not, children can be taught not to blindly accept what they are told, but how to reason and use critical thinking.

We also believe that the search for mystery animals, even on a small scale, can kindle the fascination with the natural world, which is so sadly lacking in so much of modern youth. One hesitates to appear pretentious and quote Shakespeare twice in two paragraphs, but our ultimate aim is that the children with whom we work “Find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything”

THANK YOU

Thank you to everyone who has helped us through the last year. I would like to single out two in particular: Matthew Osborne and Dave Braund-Phillips, both of whom have worked tirelessly, and always with good humour, even when the hours they have been forced to work have been far beyond anything allowed under basic human rights legislation. Thank-you boys.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for your support during 2008, and look forward to your continued support during 2009. May you have a peaceful and happy holiday season, and the New Year that you would wish for yourselves.

God bless you all,

Jon Downes
(Director, CFZ)
Woolsery,
North Devon

December 15th 2008.