Ranchers near Lincoln, Nebraska are experiencing a return of cattle mutilations. The mystery of these mutilations was never solved, despite investigations by law enforcement agencies in dozens of states during the 1970s and ’80s. Rancher Mike Benes says, “We’ve lived here 17 years on this place. This is the first time we’ve had any problems or anything with our livestock.” On April 5th, he found 2 cows and a calf dead in the pasture. “I saw the calf right away because the other cows were all around it,” he says. The calf’s testicles, scrotum and hindquarters had been removed. “There was no blood in the pasture,” he says. When his veterinarian did an autopsy, he found something even stranger: the cows had been electrocuted.
Despite a heavy snowfall, Benes found another electrocuted cow on April 7th. Unlike most mutilations, there were tracks in the snow. “It’s kind of mind-boggling,” he says. “It’s not the monetary value of the cows. Of course it’s a concern but it’s nothing compared to the violation of our property that we felt when these people came in while we were sleeping and stalked our cows around a 10-acre pasture.”
Saunders County Sheriff Chuck Lacey is investigating similar mutilations. His father was the Johnson County Sheriff in the 1970s and remembers getting similar reports. “They were talking aliens back then,” he says.
Steve Stanec, of the Nebraska Brand Committee, says there’s a 3-inch stack of files in storage on local mutilations. “In the last 20 years it’s been very infrequent,” he says. “In the late ’70s, early ’80s, it was a hot issue.”
Colm Kelleher, of the National Institute for Discovery Science, says, “Our research has kind of convinced us that (some cases) cannot be explained just by predators. You really have to get to the stage where coyotes are packing scalpels.”
Nebraska State Patrol Investigator Jay Petersen says, “I ain’t got no answer but I know it’s not aliens because aliens don’t leave tracks.”
If there’s one investigator who knows all about cattle mutilations, it’s Linda Moulton Howe!
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