Newborn Heifer Mutilation in Anderson, California, on August 7, 2004

August 11, 2004  Anderson, California - Since the 1950s, unusual deaths that law enforcement and ranchers have called "animal mutilations" have been reported around the world. Both domestic animals and wild game have been affected, especially horses and cattle. Ranchers and law enforcement have long been puzzled because animals are found with the same pattern of hide and tissue removed - usually without blood - from the head, sexual organs, and rectum. There are no signs of struggle or tracks around the dead animals, not even the animal's own tracks. That peculiar fact provoked law enforcement to wonder if perpetrators came in and out of pastures using aerial craft.