Cattle mutilation
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Cattle mutilation is the alleged killing and then subsequent mutilation of cattle, under supposedly unusual or anomalous circumstances. Sheep or horses have also been similarly mutilated, according to some accounts.
There is no consensus that the phenomenon actually exists, or if it does exist, what causes the phenomenon. The number of animals said to be mutilated under unusual circumstances is unclear, but proponents argue it may be in the thousands. Ranchers are often said to be reluctant to come forward and report animals mutilated under odd circumstances, due to several factors: the associated ridicule, fear of reprisal, and the financial costs of securing necropsy for dead livestock.
Mutilation is said to include removal of parts of the mouth and hind regions, especially the anus and sexual organs. Animals are usually said to have been drained of all or most of their blood, and some of the wounds inflicted are supposedly indicative of skilled or unusual procedures. Some attribute these mutilations to extraterrestrials; unidentified flying objects are sometimes reported in conjunction with alleged mutilations. Others have suggested that secretive governmental or military agencies may be involved. Some observers have taken a more agnostic approach, arguing that some mutilations do indeed appear odd, but do not offer enough data to reach an informed conclusion.
Skeptics, such as Robert T. Carroll, and some other scientists hold that the apparent mutilations have completely natural and terrestrial origins: animals that have died from natural causes which have then been fed upon by a variety of scavengers, such as vultures, buzzards, and blowflies who tend to remove the eyes and softer internal organs first via the easiest access route—the mouth and anus.
Proponents respond that many debunkers have little or no field experience with such mutilations, and further note that farmers and large-animal veterinarians have made distinctions between normal predation and so-called "cattle mutilations." For example, Veterinarian George E. Onet writes that experts have found unusual features in some mutilations: "Dr. John Altshuler, a Colorado MD pathologist, has examined over thirty mutilation cases since 1989 and found in skin tissues from the excision lines, lesions consistent with overheated collagen and hemoglobin, or with sharp dissection ... The Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Corvallis (Oregon State University) established in a 1991 case that skin sections from a suspect mutilated steer showed lesions consistent with electro-surgical excision." [1]
In 2002, Rancher Ruby Brouma contended that some mutilations have characteristics very different from other, more commonplace animal deaths: "When an animal dies, a predator, whether it be a coyote, wolf, whatever, they will chew into the animal and make a large enough hole so they can start eating into the flesh ... Nothing had eaten on this animal (almost two months after it was killed) ... If you lose a calf you just take it back in the pasture and the predators will take care of it. ... In the mutilated ones, these wild animals won't do that. Why? I don't know."[2]
Since the mid-1970’s, Denver-based journalist Linda Moulton Howe has done extensive research on the subject, and argues that the mutilations represent an unexplained phenomenon.
Though often seen as a fringe issue, U.S. Government officials have expressed concern: former Colorado governor Richard Lamm described such animal mutilations "one of the greatest outrage in the history of western cattle industry."[3]
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History
An account by Alexander Hamilton of Leroy, Kansas, supposedly occurred about April 19, 1897, and was published in the Yates Center Farmer’s Advocate of April 23. Hamilton, his son, and a tenant witnessed an airship hovering over his cattle pen. Upon closer examination, the witnesses realized that a red "cable" from the airship had lassoed a heifer, but had also become entangled in the pen’s fence. After trying unsuccessfully to free the heifer, Hamilton cut loose a portion of the fence, then "stood in amazement to see the ship, cow and all rise slowly and sail off." (Jacobs, 15) Some have suggested this was the earliest report of cattle mutilation. This was part of a larger wave of so-called mystery airship sightings. (In 1982, however, UFO researcher Jerome Clark debunked this story, and confirmed via interviews and Hamilton's own affidavit that the story was a successful attempt to win a Liar's Club competition to create the most outlandish tall tale).
Most of the allegedly unusual mutilations, however, date from the 1960s with cases continuing to the present.
Snippy
The first allegedly strange death of livestock--or at least the first widely-publicized case--comes from near Alamosa, Colorado, in 1967. On September 7 of that year, Agnes King and her son Harry noted that Snippy (The real name of the animal was Lady, but the media quickly adopted the name Snippy, which has stuck), a three-year-old horse had not returned to the ranch at the usual time for her water. This was unusual, given the heat and the arid conditions.
Harry found Snippy on September 9. Her head and neck had been skinned and defleshed, the bones were white and clean. To King, the cuts on Snippy seemed to have been very precise. There was no blood at the scene, according to Harry, and there was a strong medicinal odor in the air.
The next day, Harry and Agnes returned to the scene with Mr. and Mrs. Berle Lewis, who were Agnes’ brother and sister-in-law. They found a lump of skin and horse flesh; when Mrs. Lewis touched it, the flesh oozed a greenish fluid which burned her hand. They also reported the discovery of fifteen “tapering, circular exhaust marks punched into the ground” over some 5000 square yards. (Saunders and Harkins, 156) The medicinal odor had weakened somewhat, but was still present.
Mrs. Lewis contacted the United States Forest Service, and Ranger Duane Martin was sent to investigate. Among other tasks, Martin “checked the area with a civil defense Geiger counter. He reported finding a considerable increase in radioactivity about two city blocks from the body.” (Saunders and Harkins, 157) Later, Martin would state, “The death of this saddle pony is one of the most mysterious sights I’ve ever witnessed ... I’ve seen stock killed by lightning, but it was never like this.” (ibid., 159)
After trying to interest other authorities with little success, Mrs. Lewis turned to her professional connections: She wrote occasionally for the Pueblo Chieftain. Her account of Snippy’s strange death was published in that newspaper, and was picked up by the Associated Press on October 5, 1967. Soon, much of the United States knew the tale of Snippy’s death, and reports of UFO’s were made from others in Colorado.
That same day, an account by Superior Court Judge Charles E. Bennett of Denver, Colorado, saw publication. Bennett and his wife claimed to have witnessed “three reddish-orange rings in the sky. They maintained a triangular formation, moved at a high speed, and made a humming sound.” (Saunders and Harkins, 157) The civilian UFO research group NICAP became involved in the case as well, and some people were speculating that UFOs were somehow involved with Snippy’s death.
Shortly thereafter, an anonymous Denver pathologist’s account of his autopsy saw publication. Snippy’s brain and abdominal organs were missing, he said, and there was no material in the spinal column. The pathologist insisted on anonymity, he said, due to fear of damaging his reputation with involvement in such a high-profile case.
The Condon Committee, then at the University of Colorado, sent its coordinator, Robert Low, to investigate. Low brought in Dr Robert O. Adams, head of Colorado State University’s Veterinary and Biomedical Science School.
Adams examined Snippy and the evidence. He concluded there were “No unearthly causes, at least not to my mind.” (Saunders and Harkins, 164) Adams noted a severe infection in Snippy’s hindquarters, and speculated that someone had come across the dying horse and slit its throat in order to end its misery. Then, Adams said, scavengers had inflicted the rest of the damage to the horse.
To some, this settled the question, but Mrs. Lewis argued that Adams’ conclusions were flawed in not accounting for the lack of blood at the scene and the medicinal odor.
Low reported that he’d located the “anonymous pathologist”; Low said that the man was “widely misquoted “and was furthermore not a pathologist. The man’s opinions of Snippy’s death generally matched Adams’, said Low. Jerome Clark later identifies the anonymous man as hematologist John H. Altshuler. (Clark, 17)
Mothman
In his book The Mothman Prophecies, John Keel claims to have examined a number of slain dogs, cows and horses in the Point Pleasant, West Virginia area in 1966 and 1967. These animals, Keel writes, bore “surgical-like incisions in their throats ... often the carcasses seemed drained of blood.” (Clark, 17)
Recent cases
Reports continue through recent years, though as noted above, precise numbers are very difficult to determine.
According to a 1997 NIDS report, ranchers in Utah were weighing and tagging calves one morning. They tagged an 87-pound individual, then, less than an hour later, reported that they made a shocking discovery: "In a 45 minute period in daylight, 100 yards from any cover, with the rancher about 200-300 yards away, the calf had most of its body weight removed, including entrails, and appeared to have been placed carefully on the ground with no blood present or near the animal." Report available at this external link; Warning: Contains graphic photos [4] and [5] which also contains extremely graphic material.
Explanations
As noted above, some argue that the mutilations have prosaic origins. An FBI study, for example, found nothing unusual, while many mainstream experts contend that the mutilations are entirely normal scavanging or predation. Columnist Cecil Adams notes that "In 1974, for instance, state veterinary labs investigating a rash of mutilation reports in Nebraska and South Dakota reported that every animal brought to them for examination had died of natural causes."[6]
Others have argued that some mutilations have anomalous features, and no compelling explanation. Suspects include extraterrestrials, satanists, secretive military types in unmarked helicopters, and others.
Done by humans?
There has been a report that, in the first series of cattle mutilations, that the culprits were seen to come in a UFO-type craft, and that when its cockpit lights came on, they revealed helicopter rotors above the craft. It is alleged that these events were done by humans arriving in helicopters which were disguised as flying saucers, as disinformation to distract US public attention from real secret aircraft development.
Some have speculated that the mutilations may have been perpetrated by satanists or other cultists.
Military Culprits?
In April 2001, NIDS interviewed a rancher (he was also a veteran of the Vietnam War) then living in Cache County, Utah who had reported a number of odd cattle deaths and injuries extending back over two decades.
More intriguingly, the rancher (designated "Witness 1") reported a run-in with mysterious military personnel in 1976. The account was corroborated via a separate interview with the witness's former superior officer, the retired sheriff of Cache County. NIDS notes that they verified the interviewees' identities and past employment claims, but the report withholds their names due to promises of privacy. There have been many other similar reports, but this account is among the most detailed and intriguing (keeping in mind, of course, the potential shortcomings and limitations of eyewitness testimony). The lengthy report is available at this external link, which contains graphic photos: [7]
For some time prior to 1976, several ranchers in and near Cache County had witnessed unmarked helicopters which they associated with the ongoing mutilations. As the retired sheriff (designated "Witness 2") reported, "every time we'd see those black helicopters, a day or so later we'd have a farmer or rancher call in with two or three dead cows." The helicopters were not only witnessed flying in the skies, but also landing at the small Cache-Logan Community Airport. The ranchers organized armed patrols, and determined that if the chance presented itself, they would fire upon the helicopters.
Witness 1 (who was a Sheriff's deputy in 1976) insisted that late one evening, three unmarked and unusually quiet helicopters were sighted. He and several others rushed to the Cache-Logan airport where they saw a small airplane on the runway alongside one of the three helicopters. After trying to block the airplane's departure route with their cars, they observed a man wearing coveralls who left a Huey-type helicopter "with a shiny suitcase in hand."
The man jogged to the airplane and gave the briefcase to the airplane's pilot. Much to the unnamed witness's surprise, the airplane began to take off, narrowly missing the impromptu police vehicle barricade, and forcing one fellow deputy to crash his police cruiser to avoid a collision.
The man left the helicopter's door open, and the former sheriff noted "on the bottom of the door on the helicopter" the words "Property of U.S. Army" were inscribed; "that little insignia they have on all their equipment."
The witness then turned his attention to the man, a tall figure perhaps 35 years old, wearing green military-style fatigues which lacked, however, the characteristic identification of name, rank or military unit. The witnessed asked the tall man for identification; the man replied "I have none." The witness said he touched the man's chest, partly to see if the man wore dog tags under his clothing. He did not.
When the witnesses touched the man's chest, the airborne helicopters both made moves that the witness "Interpret(ed) as a beginning gun pass". The witness speculated that "if I attempted to physically arrest that man, they'd a killed us both, right there, on the spot, with the same mental attitude that the pilot had ... that ran my patrol car off a runway." (sic)
Due to this perceived threat (and the lack of any firm evidence of criminal wrongdoing), the witness decided to not attempt an arrest. He did, however, tell the man that the police and ranchers in the area were frustrated with the inexplicable deaths of their cattle, and that they suspected the unmarked helicopters were involved. He added that eventually, some armed rancher or farmer with a rifle would shoot at the helicopters, "and we intend to bring you down, sir."
After a pause, the man said, "May I go?" The witness said yes, and the man returned to his helicopter, which flew off to the west.
The witness (and several other individuals) asserted that after this showdown, that the unmarked helicopters were no longer seen, and the cattle mutilations in northern Utah and southern Idaho ceased for some five years.
Later in 1976, a National Sheriff's Association colleague in Texas was investigating a number of cattle mutilations, and, inspired by the Utah police's actions, soon organized armed patrols, and began closely monitoring the unmarked helicopters. Law-enforcement officers in Texas had no face-to-face encounter with the pilots, but they reported that the mutilations in the area ceased.
In fiction
- These cattle mutilations had an influence on the plot of the Gerry Anderson UFO series.
- A television adaptation of War of the Worlds touches upon the phenomenon. In an early episode, aliens have drained the blood from cattle so as to use the blood as a temporary means to slow the process of their inflicted radiation poisoning.
- Sneakers, a 1992 thriller, makes humorous references to cattle mutilation.
- An early episode of South Park featured cattle mutilation. Eventually, it was discovered the extraterrestrials were attempting to establish communication with the cattle as they are the most intelligent, reasonable creatures on Earth. The mutilation was accidental and was "Carl's fault"
Sources
- Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, Volume Three: High Strangeness, UFO’s from 1960 through 1979, Omnigraphics, 1996, ISBN 15558887423
- David Michael Jacobs, The UFO Controversy In America, Indiana University Press, 1975; ISBN 0253190061
- David R. Saunders and R. Roger Harkins, UFO’s? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong, World Publishing, 1969
- Linda Moulton Howe's A Strange Harvest