Cattle Mutilation investigation continued, more animals found, more authorities/ranchers baffled

Image Credit: Chuck Zukowski - Not much left of this calf

Aka…the continued adventures of MUFON investigator Chuck Zukowski.

We pick up our story soon after our investigation on Saturday, March 14th. The following Tuesday, March 17th, Chuck received a call about another strange animal death, this time in Walsenburg.  This rancher also welcomed our investigators to take a look and help explain what may have happened. Chuck set a time for the next day and headed out.

Majority of calf's body missing

The new victim was a one-week-old calf. Rancher, Tom Miller, had last seen his herd intact during their normal afternoon feeding time on Monday. The next morning the mutilated calf was found near the feeding tub, completely destroyed. The torso with the ribs and organs were completely gone, and the ears were cut out in circular patches. The only thing left was the head, the legs, and the spinal cord. Everything else was gone, without a trace. There was no blood in the area of the animal, and what was left looked crushed.

There were no signs of struggle. The crushing of the animal looked almost like it had been done by the animal being hit by a vehicle, but it was in a fenced area and there were no tire tracks. The location was also in view of the ranch house.

Miller and other local ranchers that he had asked to come take a look were baffled. The only explanation for the crushed condition of the remains they could come up with was that it was dropped from a very great height.

Chuck arrives to take samples

Chuck was able to get there Wednesday, the 18th. The day after the calf was found. The remains of the animal were now on the flatbed of a truck, ready to be hauled off. Chuck and I had discussed the importance of getting the animal to a veterinarian to have a necropsy done, but time and resources didn’t allow for it. So Chuck was going to take samples and pictures and then work on finding a lab that could look at the samples.

Upon Chuck’s arrival, one of the people at the ranch checking on the animal was a Colorado Brand Inspector. According to the Division of Brand Inspection's website, their primary responsibility is to protect the livestock industry from loss by theft, illegal butchering, or straying of livestock. Brand Inspector, Dennis Williams, agreed with the ranchers that this death was unusual. They all told Chuck they had never seen predator damage like this. In fact, they felt that the incision around the ear appeared to be made by a laser. Once again there were wounds that looked to be cauterized.

And then a third mutilation

The fun didn’t stop there. Already overworked and stressed out from two animal investigations, and hard at work trying to find someone to look at the samples, Chuck received another call on Saturday March 21st. Brand Inspector, Dennis Williams, had received a call from ranch manager, Tim Meyers. Meyers had a strange cattle death that he asked Williams to come take a look at. Williams called Chuck, and they agree that Williams would take a look at the animal, and Chuck would come out if Williams found the death strange. Seasoned Brand Inspector, Williams, called Chuck that evening, and let him know he had another weird one. Chuck jumped in his UFO Nut (that’s the name of Chuck’s website, which he has on a sticker on his SUV) mobile, and headed out yet again.

This animal also had its udders removed. Meyers said it looked as though it were surgically removed. He had noticed the animal missing during feeding time Saturday March 21st, in the afternoon. He had last seen her the previous afternoon. He went to look for her, and found her body. He also found that she had given birth sometime on Friday, and the newborn calf was not far away. This was the cow’s first time giving birth. She was about two and a half years old. Meyers was able to rescue the calf.

Besides the udders which appeared to have been surgically removed, the only other damage to the animal was in the vaginal area, where predators seemed to have gotten at it. Again, there didn’t look to be any blood from the udder removal. In stark contrast to the predator damage which did produce blood.

Colorado State University able to look at samples

Trying to manage his life as a family man, a microchip engineer, and a reserve police officer, Chuck told me he didn’t know what he was going to do if there was another. He was trying to get preliminary reports out to our colleagues and to Linda Moulton-Howe, a long time cattle mutilation investigator, who wanted to report the findings.

On top of that, we found that we truly were not prepared to handle these sorts of cases. We needed to find a lab that would be able to look at the animals and preferably be able to perform a necropsy within a couple days of the animal’s death.

Colorado State University is one of the top veterinary schools in the country. Although they are in northern Colorado and these mutilations, and Chuck are in Southern Colorado, his first choice was to give them a call. He was able to get in touch with Colleen Duncan, Professor of Anatomic Pathology at CSU. It was a blessing when she told Chuck she was willing to take a look at his samples. Truly the break he had been looking for. He arranged to drive out there and get them the samples, so they could try to determine how the lacerations were made, and if indeed they found cauterization.

Next Up: CSU’s findings