Bizarre mutilations of cattle lead to 'alien visitor' theory

The police serving a small village in south central Colorado are scratching their heads over the mysterious deaths and mutilations of four calves reported by one rancher this month.

San Luis, Colorado - Colorado has been the source of stories of animal mutilations before, although most of the cases have been found to be the result of animal predation. Home to big skies and mountains, Colorado has been long favoured for cattle ranching, although with Colorado's tourism economy growing, there have been clashes. Established in 1851 and nestled in the mountains, San Luis is a quaint and picturesque village that is home to 661 people. The news of the calf mutilations on a pasture rented by Manual Sanchez has stirred up the village, where talk of alien visitors is growing. Sanchez had reported finding, over a three week period, four of his calves killed -- and strangely mutilated. The calves were found eviscerated and the skin was peeled back. One calf was also missing some of its tongue. There were no footprints, no animal tracks, no traces of vehicles in the pasture, and the part that has puzzled police -- no blood. Sargent James Chavez, the Public Information Officer for the Costilla County Sheriff's Office, told The Pueblo Chieftain

"... a deputy and an undersheriff went to the pasture to investigate one of the killings. Chavez said the investigation revealed no indications of a predator attack and the lack of blood at the site made it highly unlikely that a person butchered it.

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

The mutilations have drawn a noted UFO chaser, Chuck Zukowski, who investigated the bizarre killings. Zukowski has posted excellent, although disturbing photographs of the calf he investigated, along with detailed information. He said a horse found dead and mutilated in San Luis 40 years ago was linked to the mutliation of the calves. Zukowski also noted that there was no witness recollection of helicopters or airplanes in the area at the time of the mutilation, although a wolf was known to be around. Zukowski likened the San Luis case to one he had investigated earlier in 2009, the "Miller Cattle Mutilation case." Zukowski also noted that his entire investigation of Sanchez's dead calf had been witnessed by a news reporter. Other cases of cattle mutilation have been reported this year in Southern Colorado. In the Miller case, the rancher, Tom Miller, found the remains of one calf

"... in the morning roughly 5 feet from a feed tub laying dead with only its spinal column, head and legs left behind.

"It's the strangest thing I've ever seen," Miller said.

Miller said the only thing holding the calve's back legs to the body was the hide.

"I cut the hide and the legs just fell off. All the bones were broken. It was just strange," Miller said. "An animal just doesn't clean out a carcass like that in one night. It would take several days to do something like that."

The sensational cases have not been, in the view of many casual observers, satisfactorily explained by authorities, and wild rumours abound. Aliens from outer space conducting bizarre murders and autopsies are not the only explanation, although the alien theory is the most favoured. Also favoured is the mythical Chucacabra, or Bigfoot. And then there are those who subscribe to the theory that there are is a person or group of people who are perpetrating the mutilations for some unknown reason. Unexplained animal mutilations have been reported in the news since the late 1960s.