Mystery deepens as cattle mutilations with 'surgical precision' continue in US, leaving officials baffled
This article contains graphic content and animal abuse. Discretion is advised.
SILVIES VALLEY, OREGON: Growing up in the farming business, Colby Marshall thought he had seen it all. But during his time as the Vice President of Operations at Silvies Valley Ranch in rural Oregon, he stumbled across something in a wooded ravine that horrified him.
Marshall received a disturbing call in 2019 about a dead Hereford bull lying at the bottom of a steep ravine. Despite the frequency of cattle deaths in the wild, it was not the bull's death that startled him when he arrived. What concerned Marshall was the condition of the carcass, as it was missing its reproductive organs and tongue, which had apparently been expertly removed with a sharp blade. There was no evidence of the typical tracks left by natural predators.
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5 bulls were mutilated with surgical precision
"It was fascinating and scary all at the same time," Marshall told Daily Mail. "There were no signs of injury or sickness. The bull was just lying there. It was the weirdest damn thing." To make matters more confusing, there was no blood on the ground or wounds, and no scavengers had come to eat the carcass of the bull. The scene was eerily precise and reminiscent of an operating room or a horror movie. In addition, the vegetation around the bull's remains seemed undisturbed, and there were no visible tracks in the area.
"It was as if these animals had just walked along, fallen over, and then had these items cut off of them," Marshall recalled. The situation became even more bizarre when Marshall received a call about another dead bull located just a few hundred yards away while he was examining the first one. The following day, he discovered additional dead bulls scattered throughout the vast 140,000-acre ranch. In total, five bulls were found to have been expertly butchered with the same precision as the first one.
Upon discovering the mutilated bulls, Marshall promptly reported the incidents to the authorities, leading to the involvement of three different federal agencies in the investigation. The Silvies Valley Ranch also offered a reward of $25,000 for any information that could help solve the case, but unfortunately, no credible leads or suspects ever emerged in the investigation.
Cattle killings in the US date back to the 1800s
Cattle mutilations have a long and troubling history of unsolved cases involving soft tissue organ removal such as udders, eyes, ears, sex organs, and tongues dating back to the 1800s in the United States and even earlier in other parts of the world.
Recently, these strange killings have been on the rise again as a number of cattle mutilations have been discovered in east-central Texas, bringing this bizarre phenomenon back into the public eye. Authorities discovered that "a circular cut was made removing the anus and the external genitalia" on two of the five cows. The cut had been made with "the same precision" as the cuts along the cow's jaws. There were also no signs of disturbance in the grass, no spilled blood, and no noticeable marks in the area, which was later discovered.
Dozens of cattle have also been killed in Colorado by an elusive predator that leaves no tracks. last October, 18 dead cows were found near the town of Meeker. Some looked like they had been killed by wolves, but Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials found no wolf tracks or evidence of the predator in the area.