Cattle Mutilation – The Unthinkable Truth, Chapter 1, Part Three

The Farm Journal, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 1975

"REWARDS NOW TOTAL $23,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of stock mutilators in Colorado. The last $10,000 was posted by the Elbert and El Paso County Ranchers and Farmers Association for incidents in those two counties (where NORAD and the Air Force Academy are located). More mutilations have been reported in New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Wisconsin and Iowa. Shots have been fired at Army helicopters. Accusations have been hurled at everyone from Patty Hearst (Symbionese Army captive) to the (Charles) Manson family (mass murderer) and the U. S. government. There have also been reported mutilations of dogs, hogs, mules, donkeys, goats, sheep, horses ­ and a buffalo at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. But lawmen and ranchers are still looking for their first solid clue."

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 One especially infuriating aspect of it has been the waste of meat. To ranchers, this is absolutely unpardonable ­ on a par with trophy hunters who take heads to hang in their dens while letting the edible part of the game rot. Actually, this is even worse. Cattlemen imagine prime steaks to be the very choicest food available anywhere. But these mutilators, whoever they are, display a fine contempt and haughty disdain for that economically sacred idea.