Last updated:

here were occasional reports of mysterious cattlemutilation in the US during the late 1960s, but it wasn't until 1973 this phenomena escalated rapidly enough to be brought to the interest of the public. Reports started coming in from farmers all over Minnesota and Kansas, stating that the dead animals (in most cases cows) did not show any signs of bullet or stabwounds, but were lacking certain bodyparts. Such as: eyes, ears, rectum, genitals and glands. These bodyparts had been removed very neat and tidy. What was even weirder was the fact that no footprints or any other proof of human involvment was ever found. Some of these animals were also reported being completly drained of blood, without one drop being spillt on the ground. Local police was as confused as the farmers.
   Alber Thompson, sheriff in Lincoln County, Minnesota made a statement that the cows had died from diseases and then been tampered whith by pranksters. He was ridiculed even though a Kansas patologistreport revield a well known cattledisease to be the cause of death in some cases. However none of these statements could leave any explanation to how and why organs had been removed so exactly.
   Police in four states claimed the explanation to be satanist cults. In 1975 Donald Flickinger was assigned to hunt down this group of bloodthirsty satanists, believed to be operating throughout the entire US. The only real evidence of human involvment was a blue briefcase, found close to a ranchers mailbox in Lincoln County, Colorado. Being of the same type commonly used by state officials helped boast conspiracytheories, especially about black, unmarked helicopters being sighted around several of the scenes.
   FBI examined the briefcase which contained medicalgloves, a scalpel with blood on it and a severed ear of a cow. They were however unable to find any fingerprints and they couldn't locate the cow from which the ear came.
   By the end of the '70:s more than a thousand animals had died spread over about every farmingstate, and there were more questions than answers. Depending on who You were talking to these mutilations were explained as:

• Satanists
• Masshysteria
• Secret government experiments
• aliens
• some kind of previously unknown animal of pray, (in recent years this theory has gained in popularity and some believe this predator to be the puertorican "goatsucker" - El Chupacabra

One investigator claimed to have been threathened to his life, while investigating a possible link between the cattlemutilation and experiments in bacteriological warfare.
   An animalpathologist claimed some of the animals looked as having been dropped from a high altitude and then cut open by sophisticated laser equipment.
   A physician announced he had been in touch with indians telling him: "The starpeople knows what they're doing, we can trust them."
   In 1979, senator Harrison Schmitt of New Mexico, requested a federal investigation of "this mysterious killings". FBI came up with 40 000 dollars to fund the investigation and put Kenneth Rommel, a former FBI special agent, in charge of the operation. A year later a report was filed stating that predators and other animals feasting on the carcasses were responsible for the mutilations.
   A lot of people protested against this report claiming that Rommel obviously had not studied any of the typical exemples. But, as far as authoritys were concearned the case was closed.

• Comments?
• A possible explanation to El Chupacabra?