Cattle mutilations hit their peak in the 70s when hundreds of cases were reported in Colorado and New Mexico. Because of newspapers, radio, and television, reports were getting to millions of people within a day of the deaths.
Ranchers found the animals with what is described as “surgical” incisions, typically with the cheeks, udders, sex organs, and eyes removed, but without the tale-tell signs of typical predators like wolves or coyotes. Instead, the animal corpses appeared to be nearly bloodless with no tracks or indication of animals nearby. Cattle mutilations are defined as the killing and mutilation of cattle under unusual, usually bloodless circumstances.
This phenomenon has been observed among wild animals as well. Worldwide, sheep, horses, goats, pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, bison, deer, and elk have been reported mutilated with similar bloodless excisions; often an ear, eyeball, jaw flesh, tongue, lymph nodes, genitals, and rectum are removed.
Explanations have been offered from natural decomposition and normal predation to cults and secretive governmental and military agencies, to a range of speculations, including cryptid predators (like the Chupacabra) and extraterrestrials.
Many residents report seeing helicopters circling the areas where cattle later turn up dead and sliced up with seemingly surgical accuracy.
The earliest known documentation of unexplained livestock deaths occurred in early 1606. “…about the city of London and some of the shires adjoining. Whole slaughters of sheep have been made, in some places to number 100, in others less, where nothing is taken from the sheep but their tallow and some inward parts, the whole carcasses, and fleece remaining still behind.
Of this sundry conjectures, but most agree that it tendeth towards some fireworks.” This was noted in the official records of the Court of James I of England[1]. Charles Fort[2] collected many accounts of cattle mutilations that occurred in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. John Keel[3] mentioned investigating animal mutilation cases in 1966 (while with Ivan T. Sanderson[4]) that were being reported in the Upper Ohio River Valley, around Gallipolis, Ohio
Both the liver and the heart were white and mushy. Both organs had the texture and consistency of peanut butter
Gabriel L Valdez, New Mexico Police
When the FBI was brought into the investigation they did find some stuff in the autopsies which seemed odd: the absence of copper in the liver, for example. The FBI investigation includes theories ranging from “dropped from a helicopter” to “injected with anti-coagulants.” Other tests have shown unusually high or low levels of vitamins or minerals in tissue samples, and the presence of chemicals not normally found in animals.
Scientists were unable to explain the fact that the livers contain 4 times the normal level of zinc, potassium, and phosphorus.
There’s also, of course, the skeptic’s explanation. Those precise, surgical cuts have been demonstrated in experiments to also be found when a dead cow bloats, tearing the skin neatly. Some insect scavengers like blowflies do tend to go for eyes and genitals; those are soft portals to the inside of the animal.
In 1979 the FBI Investigations was headed by FBI agent Kenneth Rommel. His final 297-page report basically said that the majority of mutations could be explained and that “most credible sources have attributed this damage to normal predator and scavenger activity”. He did acknowledge that some cases contained anomalies that could not be accounted for by conventional wisdom. It should be noted that Rommel (a former FBI bank robbery expert) was disgusted by dead necrotic cows and chose to let others do the actual investigations while he waited upwind in the car.
While looking for the non-cult or paranormal answers here are some good points. The absence of blood could be explained as blood pooling in the lowest points in the body where it will break down into its basic organic components. Blood that is external to the body, or in the area of a wound being consumed by insects or reduced by solar desiccation.
The surgical incisions in the skin could be explained as tears in the skin created when it is stretched by postmortem bloat and/or as dehydration causes the animal’s hide to shrink and split, often in linear cuts. Incisions caused by scavengers or predators are possibly exacerbated by the above. On the cult hypothesis, they believe that the apparent absence of blood at mutilation sites may indicate cult members would harvest it, that organs have been removed from cattle for use in rituals, and that unborn calves have been harvested from mutilated cattle.
In 1975, the US Treasury Department assigned Donald Flickinger[5] to investigate the existence of connections between cults and the mutilation of cattle. Flickinger recorded a number of ‘unusual’ incidents and circumstantial evidence but was unable to find sufficient evidence of cult involvement for the ATF to take further action.
Footnotes
- James I of England (ruled 1603-1625), who was also James VI of Scotland (ruled 1567-1625), was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and he unified the thrones of Scotland and England following the death of Queen Elizabeth I of England (ruled 1558-1603) who left no heir. For the first time, there was a single monarch for England, Scotland, and Ireland.
- Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who specialized in anomalous phenomena. The terms “Fortean” and “Forteana” are sometimes used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort’s books sold well and are still in print. His work continues to inspire admirers, who refer to themselves as “Forteans”, and has influenced some aspects of science fiction.
- John Alva Keel (March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009) was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist who is best known as the author of The Mothman Prophecies.
- Ivan Terence Sanderson (January 30, 1911 – February 19, 1973) was a British biologist and writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland, who became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Along with Belgian-French biologist Bernard Heuvelmans, Sanderson was a founding figure of cryptozoology, a pseudoscience, and subculture. Sanderson authored material on paranormal subjects and wrote fiction under the pen name Terence Roberts.
- Donald E. Flickinger (U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division) had been contacted by a well-known UFO expert who had received a letter from an inmate at Fort Leavenworth. His name was Kenneth Bankston, and although he said he wasn’t a member of a cult, he had information about one. He was transferred to a jail in Minnesota, where Flickinger interrogated him for a month. Bankston told a story of a satanic cult in Texas called “The Sons of Satan,” whose purpose was to create “hell on earth.” This large, wealthy cult was led by a right-wing, white supremacist leader called “Howard.” The cult was focused on animal sacrifices, but human sacrifices were their ultimate goal. Bankston described the cattle mutilation process this way: First, the cow was shot with a tranquilizer pellet. Then the members would walk up to the cow without leaving tracks by using large pieces of cardboard. They didn’t want to leave tracks because they wanted the public to believe that UFOs were involved in the mutilations. If there was snow on the ground, they’d use blow torches to create a circle around the cattle. When they got close enough to the cow, they would place a stimulant, like amyl nitrate, against its nose in order to speed up its bodily functions. Then they used veterinary syringes to withdraw all of the blood. Finally, they would cut out all of the body parts and organs they wanted to use in their sacrificial rituals.
- Colm A. Kelleher, Ph.D., is a biochemist with a fifteen-year research career in cell and molecular biology. Following his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Dublin, Trinity College in 1983, Kelleher worked at the Ontario Cancer Institute, the Terry Fox Cancer Research Laboratory, and the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine. For the past eight years, he has worked as a project manager and team leader at a private research institute, the National Institute of Discovery Science, using forensic science methodology to unravel scientific anomalies.
- Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and inevitably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of the disease, the cow becomes unable to function normally. The time between infection and onset of symptoms is generally four to five years. The time from onset of symptoms to death is generally weeks to months. Spread to humans is believed to result in variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD). As of 2018, a total of 231 cases of vCJD had been reported globally.
- Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the nervous systems of sheep and goats. It is one of several transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and as such, it is thought to be caused by a prion. Scrapie has been known since at least 1732 and does not appear to be transmissible to humans. However, new studies suggest a link between scrapie and sporadic CJD. The name scrapie is derived from one of the clinical signs of the condition, wherein affected animals will compulsively scrape off their fleeces against rocks, trees, or fences. The disease apparently causes an itching sensation in the animals. Other clinical signs include excessive lip-smacking, altered gaits, and convulsive collapse.
Sources
Wikipedia
Modern Farmer
The Bearded Butchers
Capital Press
