During the past three years more than 1500 cattle in 22 states have been killed and mutilated, their blood drained and selected organs removed with surgical precision. Suspects range from satanic cultists to government researchers.
In the fall of 1973, there were about 40 frightening cattle mutilations in a dozen counties in north-central Kansas, most of them occurring along U.S. 81, which runs north through Kansas into Nebraska. Nebraska also had some mutilated moos.
Kansas sheriff departments, the highway patrol and the state bureau of investigation seemed baffled as did the victimized cattle ranchers. The ranchers were used to the nocturnal depredations of predators, but they had never been seen anything like the surgical precision and methodical discrimination with which these animals had been chopped up: some with their ears and tongue and, say, an eye removed; others with swish of tail, their udders and a patch of neck flesh cut cleanly away; and neatly all of them with the anus and genitals neatly excised.
The removal of cow vulvas and bull dongs caused speculation that weirdos were involved. Suspicion fell upon one or more of the following:
- the irresponsible shenanigans of those great scapegoats, the hippies;
- sex deviates practicing bull-dong/cow-vulva atrocities; or
- the rites of some religious cultists of a devil-worshiping nature.
Many authorities demurred. Dr. Harry Anthony, director of the Kansas Stats University veterinarian laboratory, stated in late 1973 that four out of the nine mutilated animals that the lab had examined apparently had died of a cattle disease called blackleg; the Kansas state brands commissioner declared that 99 percent of the deaths of animals that had been mutilated had been caused by natural factors. Such statements triggered a bit of outrage in law-enforcement circles in the 12 Kansas counties affected, with many officials maintaining their belief that humans were involved.
There were several bits of evidence that pointed away from predators. There was the absence of blood and footprints, for example. One cow was even found in a large mudhole, but still there were no tracks. Then, there was a peculiar absence of dangling guts and scattered hunks of flesh (predators do not read Emily Post). Also, though many animals were found in secluded areas, others were found near barns or a few feet from sleeping farmers' windows—closer to civilization than predators usually roam.
And then there were the helicopters. Helicopters without filed flight plans, were sighted quite often in the afflicted counties, sometimes hovering above cattle pens. But authorities were not able to catch the choppers or to locate their landing and refueling areas. One of the early theories was that a helicopter-borne rustling operation was going on, but when it was discovered that all that was being rustled were eyeballs, genitals, milk sacs and sphinesers, that theory collapsed. Then there was a rumor, apparently without foundation, that the helicopters were part of a secret military exercise out of Fort Riley, Kansas.
The situation invited off-the-wall speculation, especially as more and more strange facts became known—such as, when removing the eyes from cattle, the mutilators would take not only the eyeball but also the eyelid, membranes and all. There was to be more. Much more.