String Of Bizarre Calf Mutilations Found On Colorado Ranch

SAN LUIS, Colo. — A creepy string of calf mutilations in southern Colorado has a rancher and sheriff's officials mystified.

Four calves were found dead in a pasture just north of the New Mexico state line in recent weeks. The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.

But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion. Usually predators leave pools of blood or drag marks from carrying away the livestock.

Two officers from the Costilla County Sheriff's Office have investigated the mutilations but say they don't know what's killing the calves.

"There's nothing really to go by," said Sanchez, who's ranched for nearly 50 years. "I can't figure it out."

A spokesman for the sheriff's office told The Pueblo Chieftain that investigators doubt a person butchered the calves because there is no blood at the scene.

"I've butchered a cow before and I know what kind of a mess it leaves," Sgt. James Chavez said.

Some in the area believe the mutilations are the work of aliens. An area UFO chaser, Chuck Zukowski of Colorado Springs, has been to the Costilla County pasture to investigate.

He told the paper there have been other unexplained calf mutilations in the area, including three in March. One of the other calves, found dead on a ranch near Trinidad, had its ears removed, Zukowski said.

"We're trying as much as we can to find a pattern," said Zukowski, who runs a UFO Web site called ufonut.com.

Sanchez said he has sold off his 32 remaining calves out of fear more would be mutilated. He hasn't decided how he'll manage the remaining 40 animals in his herd.

"It's a big loss for a small rancher," he said.

___

Information from: The Pueblo Chieftain, http://www.chieftain.com

Comments

[richardmyers]

07:44 AM on 12/01/2009

Evodevo is right about the cause. I suspect there are rural folk across Colorado (and the country) amused by the ignorance expressed in these stories. As someone else mentioned, these stories have been with us for a long time, probably originating in the 1960s with Snippy:

http://www.snippy.com/

Don't take that article about a dead horse near Alamosa at face value -- any web page that must explain the difference between a mare and a gelding is obviously aimed at gullible "city slickers" who isolate themselves from the natural world. Here's the simple and obvious explanation:

Predators (coyotes or dog packs) eat the soft tissues first -- eyes, tongue, sex organs. They lap up the blood with their tongues -- it is valuable protein.

I have stood next to dogs that had come upon, or perhaps even killed, a dead calf. I've watched them take the soft parts first. This is how predators survive every day in the country.

Ain't ya folks got any good *urban* legends you can stretch through the popular media? The UFO/livestock mutilation idea has always been ridiculous, and has gotten quite tiresome.

[ddanimal]

08:49 AM on 12/06/2009

Nonsense. You have no idea what you are talking about. There are thousands of cases like this, and they are simply not the work of animals or predators. This is the work of UFOs/aliens performing research and monitoring for some reason.

For example, the incisions leave a serrated cut edge, and sometimes leave marks of high heat (denatured hemoglobin). Read Linda Howes books on the subject and look at the pictures.

You simply have not read about the evidence and research results.

[SiberianRat]

09:52 PM on 11/29/2009

The chupacabra.

[surfcitysteven]

01:24 PM on 11/29/2009

Not this again. We dealt with this in New Mexico when I was a kid. It was UFO's then.

[enoughofrr]

08:12 AM on 11/30/2009

Where's the blood?

[surfcitysteven]

12:36 PM on 11/30/2009

The aliens took it to study it. They thought that humans might be the most intelligent life form here, but after some observation they decided to study the cows instead.

[LittleMittens]

02:15 AM on 11/29/2009

interesting; what would be the purpose of dissection? travelling ufo biology class?

[enoughofrr]

03:44 PM on 11/28/2009

They're here, baby.

[Amalek]

04:22 AM on 11/28/2009

I am glad you all got your UFO chaser on this. Not many states have their own UFO chaser. I guess Ohio has one, Dennis Kuchinich, but they sent him to Washington - probably a more likely place to find UFOs than Colorado, what with NORAD and James Dobson and all their kind probably scaring them off.

I have been in this San Luis area - pretty country with some good people, but it does seem to attract a few too many of those new age kooks. Some of them think there is this hole in the universe around there that we can fall through - like the Anazazi did. My thinking is that is a good reason to stay away, particularly if some of those aliens from the other side, or the Dobson types, get tired of skinning cows and start after people.

[enoughofrr]

02:34 PM on 11/28/2009

What, did they drain the calf first?

[enoughofrr]

03:47 PM on 11/28/2009

On to a tarp maybe?

[zombywulf]

08:50 PM on 11/27/2009

It has been reported that Glen Beck was seen in the area at the time of the ritual mutilations.

[thinkingwomanmillstone]

11:49 AM on 11/27/2009

I blame the liberal media. It's definitely an anti-calf conspiracy.

[RedStateCenterLeft]

11:16 AM on 11/27/2009

Those critters must be hanging with Snippy The Horse!

[westreal]

10:01 PM on 11/26/2009

Actually, where's UFO Hunters History Channel?

[DeSwiss]

07:40 PM on 11/26/2009

Listen to all this whistling while passing the graveyard.

The internet. Replete with jackasses, but occasionally useful. (Twisty Faster)

[ipastor01]

05:39 PM on 11/26/2009

I remember watching a show ( or parts of it ) where self assumed UFO experts attributed these kind of occurrence to aliens of course, but they also took the time to admonish so called cryptozoologists and ranchers in Latin America for suggesting the existence and the cause for the cow and goat deaths was the Chupacabras.

Well, if we have to pick a completely ridiculous theories that have a pseudo-scientific origin to side-on, I subscribe to the Chupacabra hypothesis of cause for unexplained cow and goat mutilations. CHUPA on that UFO believers.

[ddanimal]

08:50 AM on 12/06/2009

There is no evidence for Chupacabras.

There is plenty of evidence for UFOs.

[ipastor01]

04:38 AM on 12/09/2009

You reply to an almost two week old posting... you are a credit to your species and civilization ddanimal.

As it may be, it is impossible for me to share in the idea that "plenty" of evidence has been summited to prove the existence of UFO's from an extraterrestrial origin- which by definition, knowing that they are extraterrestrial in origin would cause them to stop being UFO's, but I digress. I was trying to illustrate the improbability of both of this thought configurations by choosing one over the other, knowing that not nearly enough solid evidence or serious support exists for either of this hypothesis. So, I say to you ddanimal, Live Long and Prosper.

[pogo]

05:29 PM on 11/26/2009

Yeah, I know if I was an extraterrestrial, I would devote all my energy to developing technology that would allow me to travel at way, way faster than the speed of light so I could travel millions of miles to carve up some stinkin' cows.

[VJKramer]

04:56 PM on 11/26/2009

Palin in a 'copter....

But, seriously, very sad.

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

04:53 PM on 11/26/2009

CHUPACAPBRA! CHUPACABRA! EY EY EY EY EY!

[surfcitysteven]

01:27 PM on 11/29/2009

Nah, Chupa"cabra"s only go after goats.