What is cattle mutilation?
Cattle mutilation refers to ranch animals such as cattle being found dead with parts of their bodies removed. Typical reports say the eyes, ears, tongue, lips or genitals are gone as if cut with a sharp blade, with almost no blood around.
Cases in America
Such livestock deaths became widely known after a 1967 case in Colorado in which a horse was found with the flesh stripped from its head. In the 1970s, many similar cattle deaths were reported in the American Midwest and elsewhere, and newspapers and TV covered them widely. With stories of UFOs or mysterious helicopters seen near the sites, theories spread that “aliens are using cattle for experiments” or “a secret organization is investigating something.”
What investigations found
In 1979–1980, a former FBI agent investigated the livestock deaths in detail at a state’s request. He concluded that most were animals that had died naturally of illness or other causes, whose bodies were then eaten by coyotes, birds and insects. Soft parts such as the eyes, tongue and lips are the first to be eaten by scavengers. Also, when a body swells after death and the skin splits, it can look like a clean cut made by a blade, and blood pools and clots in the lowest parts of the body, so it looks drained.
A mystery still told
Even so, some believe not all cases have been explained, and cattle mutilation is still told of as a UFO topic. It is often linked with stories of the chupacabra, the South American cryptid said to suck the blood of livestock.
