Oh, the humanity. Citizens of Rocky Point are claiming to have found a "distant relative" of the Montauk Monster, the strange and leathery beast that captivated a nation earlier this summer, on an area beach. "Flies were all over a hole in its skin and there was just bone where the head used to be," Edward Bie, a director of the North Shore Beach Property Owner's Association, told the North Shore Sun. "It did remind me of the Montauk Monster." But while this new desiccated creature bears some similarity to the original monster — especially in the hips — it really just kind of looks like a dead animal, like a dog or a raccoon, whose dignity has been further eroded by the treatment it has received at the hands of the locals. Rocky Point's Charlene Salito told the North Shore Sun:

the earliest Rocky Point Monster sighting was made by area children who were "poking at it with bats" as it lay near the shore line. She said kids told her that is why the beast had a hole in it. She said a North Shore Beach security guard later told her she saw a man "nobody recognized" transport the creature from the beach to the parking lot on a sled sometime Saturday.

Scrutinized. Photographed. Poked at with bats. It's official: The monster is us. The only question is: Who is the mysterious man who carted this beast away on a sled, preserving the last vestiges of its dignity? Was he the same old man who took the original monster home? And will he one day save us all?

The Montauk Monster's cousin? [North Shore Sun via Gawker]
Earlier: The Monster of Montauk: The Story Deepens