Colorado Springs Sun, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Cattle mutilations... ranchers arming themselves
DENVER (UPI) - There have been more than 150 cases of cattle mutilation in Colorado this year and at least 11 other states have reported grotesque attacks on livestock.
If something isn't done quickly to end the bizarre slaughter, a Colorado legislator warns, someone may get hurt by aroused ranchers.
In many cases, the sexual organs have been neatly removed. As a result, Satanic cults and space creatures have been blamed, as well as predators such as the fox or buzzard.
Other states reporting incidents are Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Idaho, Wyoming. Oregon, South Dakota, Montana and Minnesota. Officials in Texas and South Dakota, however, do not say the mutilations were done by humans.
"Ranchers and other residents in these areas are understandably upset," said Sen. Floyd Haskell. D-Colo. "It now appears that ranchers are arming themselves to protect their stock and their families. Clearly something must be done before someone gets hurt."
For one investigator, there is no doubt humans are responsible for many of the mutilations. Another blames the outbreak on persons hoping to give the government a hard time.
Dr. A.E. McChesney, a veterinarian at Colorado State University, said the majority of the 16 animals he checked were definitely victims of human mutilation.
"There is no question but that there has been willful mutilation on many of these," McChesney said. Obviously, predators have been involved, too, but you can't hide a knife wound very well."
David L. Waldron, Utah deputy agriculture commissioner, blamed the incidents on a cult bent on protesting federal government policies.
"Some think it's being done by people other than from this planet," Waldron said. "Of course, I don't buy that myself at all.
"I think there's a group of people - call them a cult if we want to. I think we've just got some people just the same as the Manson gang or the Symbionese Liberation Army. They just think this is the way to get their feelings across to the government."
But Dr. Herman Hancock of the University of Wyoming Veterinary Laboratory said natural predators may be responsible for many of the cases. A fox and go down a cow's mouth and remove its tongue." Hancock said "They even sometimes pluck out the eyes."
Keith Perkins, a rancher outside Murtaugh, Idaho, said a mare was mutilated less than a quarter-mile from his house, but he "never saw nothing nor heard nothing." He said "they needed sophisticated equipment to do this work."
Carl Whiteside, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent heading the state mutilation study, said he had been unable to determine how or why the mutilations were being done.
A large number of mutilations occurred in Texas last year, but Texas Rangers and Texas Cattleraisers Association investigators finally decided bad weather caused an unusual number of range deaths and predators removed the sex organs from cows. Veterinarians from Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory said predators are attracted to a carcass' softer areas and can make cuts as cleanly as a knife.
Even earlier mutilations in the Midwest prompted claims on television that the deaths were caused by extraterrestial beings. In South Dakota a months-long investigation and promise of rewards turned up nothing and the mutilations eventually lessened.
Often there are no tracks around the carcasses, leading some to believe the culprits arrive by helicopter.
The situation became so volatile in Colorado earlier this year that a federal agency planning to make aerial surveys from a helicopter asked farmers and ranchers not to fire on the aircraft. The Colorado Air National Guard is using its training flights to look for suspicious activity.
To stop the problem in Colorado, a reward of $11,000 has been offered by cattle groups for the arrest and conviction of persons responsible.
Donald Ostensoe, executive secretary of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, said his organization is offering a $1,000 reward. The first case in that state was reported in July and there have been at least 25 since then, with the loss estimated at $10,000.
H.L. "Tex" Graves, Logan County sheriff from Sterling, Colo., said he, and several other officers trailed a suspicious, helicopter into Western Nebraska earlier this year before it disappeared. He said theories on those responsible for the mutilations ranged from Satanic worshipers to unidentified flying objects.
"You can let your imagination run wild," Graves said, "You pick one and you could be just as right as anybody else."
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