Report on Cattle Mutilations: Sand Mountain, Alabama
Report on Cattle Mutilations
Sand Mountain, Alabama
Press Conference - Fyffe, Alabama
"Presented by the Fyffe Police Department; Fyffe, Alabama"
Charles "Junior" Garmany, Chief of Police
Boyd Graben, Mayor, City of Fyffe
Ted Oliphant, Investigating Officer
Date: Wednesday, April 7, 1993, 1 P.M..
INTRODUCTION
Beginning in November of 1992, the Fyffe Police Department has
been conducting an investigation into unexplained cattle
mutilations in cooperation with neighboring police and law
enforcement agencies. These reported incidents began on October
20, 1992 and have continued through the last week in Marshall and
DeKalb counties.
To date over thirty (30) animals have been discovered dead in
pastures with various internal and external organs missing. The
incisions examined on there animals exhibit a precise surgical
cutting. In many of the cases there has been evidence of extremely
high heat at the tissue excisions. The absence of physical evidence
adds to the mystery at the majority of mutilation sites. Though
many animals have been found in soft pasture land, and in many
cases mud, there have been no footprints, tracks, or marks found
anywhere near the mutilated animals.
To date no police agency has established a suspect or motive for
these incidents of phantom surgery perpetrated on area livestock.
Neither has an eyewitness or informant come forward to offer any
credible insight or testimony.
The first documented incident of cattle mutilation was reported on
October 20, 1992 by Albertville cattle farmer John Strawn. The
animal was discovered in a wooded area of Mr. Strawn's pasture by
a neighbor who found the animal dead, lying on its side. The
animal's entire milk sac was missing with no evidence of blood on
the animal, nor on the ground where it lay. The neighbor said the
neat, oval incision where the udder had been removed appeared to
be charred.
Other farmers in the Albertville area soon started reporting similar
cases over the next two months. The same organs were reported
missing, though what was taken varied from animal to animal. In
many cases the rectum had been cored out neatly, with no evidence
of blood or body fluid present. On female livestock the sex organs
had been removed in an identical fashion with clean, bloodless
incisions. On male livestock, the sex organs had also been removed,
again in oval, bloodless incisions. In early January Albertville
Police Department's Chief of Detectives, Tommy Cole, reported
that his ranch, too, had fallen victim to the mutilators when a Black
Angus steer fell prey to the phantom surgeons. It was at that point
that the Fyffe Police Department began working closely with the
Albertville Police Department to further investigate the continuing
incidents of mutilations.
A week after Chief Detective Cole reported his steer, the
mutilations struck again in Albertville. The next week mutilated
cattle were reported near Fyffe in Grove Oak A week later, in
Dawson, just outside of Fyffe. During the first week in February,
1993, more than nine (9) cases of mutilations were discovered and
reported in Marshall and DeKalb counties.
Throughout all the cases, cattle farmers and their neighbors
reported seeing or hearing helicopters in the vicinity either before
or shortly after mutilated cattle were discovered.
Comparison to other cattle mutilations documented by law
enforcement in forty-eight (48) other states since 1963 shows that
the cases recently documented here in northeast Alabama are part
of a national problem.
In over ten thousand (10,000) reported cases of livestock
mutilations reported since 1967, the organs and tissue taken are
always the same. Sex organs removed, tongue cut deep into the
throat and removed. Individual eyes and cars or sometimes both
have been excised. The jaw stripped to the bone in a large oval cut
and all tissue cut clean. Rectums are cored out, almost like a
stovepipe had been inserted and all the tissue and muscle has been
pulled out.
All of this has been accomplished on these thousands of animals
with no evidence of blood present at the incision in some cases the
entire blood supply of the animal had been drained, yet without
cardio-vascular collapse.
Throughout the documented history of these cattle mutilations, no
one has ever been charged or prosecuted with the crime. No one has
ever been caught.
Recently many area residents and public officials have offered
multiple causes and suspects they believe may be responsible for
these animals wounds. Some say it's predator animals like coyotes
or buzzards. Many people believe it's the work of a satanic cult or
of college students. Nevertheless evidence collected and analyzed
by Ph.D. scientists of material collected from local animals and
pastures clearly rules out both groups.
TWO SIGNIFICANT CASES
On January 31, 1993, a rancher in the Dawson Community led
investigators to the carcass of a Black Angus cow. The animal's
genitals and rectum had been cored out in one large incision that
left a hole the size of coffee can. The animal's jaw had been
completely stripped in an oval incision that encompassed The entire
right side of the animal's face. The tongue was completely gone, cut
deep down into the throat. There was no blood present on the
animal itself, nor on the ground surrounding it.
Further examination revealed a flaky white material on the animal's
right rib cage and on the ground five (5) feet from the carcass. The
material was placed in the empty wrapper of a cigarette pack and
transported to the Fyffe Police Department where it was transferred
to a glass jar. While removing the flaky particles from the cigarette
wrapper, the material came in contact with the brass tip of a ball-
point pen. Within one second of contact with the brass, the material
melted into an almost clear liquid. To reduce the risk of this
happening to the remaining material, the rest was shaken out into a
jar where it remained unaffected. This white, flaky material was
then air expressed to a molecular biologist at a leading eastern
University for analysis.
After two tests, the scientist determined that the substance was
composed of aluminum, titanium, oxygen and silicon in significant
amounts. He stated that the amount of titanium was larger than he
would ever expect to see in any substance and that there was no
way this combination of elements could ever occur in nature. This
material has now been sent to another scientist for a second
opinion. When this second analysis is completed we will release
his name and the major eastern university responsible for the
analyses.Included in your press package is the preliminary analysis,
a photograph of the substance and the technical read out on its
composition.
The second significant case in these incidents of livestock
mutilations occurred on February 7,1993. This time in Crossville,
Alabama. Cattle farmer David McClendon noticed during his
morning head count that he was missing a three-week-old calf. He
went searching for and found the animal in a wooded area dead
with a large portion of its right hind quarter missing. Examining the
animal, Mr. McClendon found that all the calf's internal organs
were missing and all that he could see was the clean, empty chest
cavity. There was no sign of blood on or near the animal. There
were no teeth marks on the tissue nor on the exposed leg bones.
David McClendon called local and county law enforcement.
Shortly after they arrived the county deputy stated that the animal
had been killed by predators and left. Mr. McClendon wasn't
satisfied that this was what happened to his animal and later that
day he brought the calf to the Fyffe Police Department for a second
opinion. A first look at the calf gave the impression that the animal
had been eaten on by wild animals, but a closer look revealed
something else, according to Oliphant.
The entire edge of the animals wounds were straight and even,
There was no evidence of tearing, ripping, or chewing anywhere.
Below the right leg joint the hide had been cut in a square, with
two (2) right angle incisions. Close examination (videotaped)
showed that the actual incision appeared to be serrated, almost like
steps with notches at each base. During the initial examination of
the calf, six (6) tissue samples were taken from the animal and
preserved in Mason jars. These tissue samples were sent to Dr.John
Altschuler, formerly of the University of Colorado, who now runs
his own state of the art pathology and hematology laboratory. Dr.
Altschuler states that all six (6) tissue samples he examined from
David McClendon's calf had been exposed to high heat, the tissue
had been cooked. Dr. Altschuler said the temperature required to
do this would have to be in "the hundreds of degrees and possibly
higher" to burn the tissue in this manner. As for the 'stepped and
notched' incisions, Dr. Altschuler stated that since he examined the
first mutilated animal back in 1967, he has seen this type of cut
over and over again.
CONCLUSION
With these two lab reports of two different samples in two separate
cases, we are forced to conclude that the predator animals cannot
be blamed for the majority of the mutilation cases documented.
Dr. Jim Armstrong, Auburn professor of zoology and wildlife
science concurs. He states, "It would be obvious if a coyote have
been tearing through. The wounds would not be similar to a smooth
cut. Coyotes bite through and pull to tear away the flesh. It would
have a 'chewed on look'. There are other scavenger animals such as
vultures that will eat at the softer regions of a cow, but there's not
going to be these clean, surgical-type cuts. There is no way a coyote
or other predator inflicted those wounds." In the past week Dr.
Armstrong has examined dozens of photographs of mutilated cows
taken by the Fyffe Police Department. He states, "I went over the
pictures with a USDA expert along with several wildlife biologists.
With the exception of one individual, we all agreed that many of
the cases were not typical predatory damage. The caution here is
that we're dealing with photos, that there is no other physical
evidence for us to look at. "But the USDA agent and most other
agreed with my conclusion that many of the pictures were not
coyote or other predator damage."
DeKalb County Auburn Extension Agent Curtis O'Daniel also
discounts the likelihood of predator animals removing circles of
cowhide. "Predators are not bad about eating hide, they'll eat up the
rest of it first. Along with the bones, the hide will be one of the last
things to go."
These statements made by expert professionals agree with the
statements made earlier this year by the Fyffe Police Department,
that predators are not responsible for the mutilations. The
conclusion, however, indicates a greater mystery: Who is doing this
and why is there a lack (for the most part) of physical evidence at
the scene?
Police Chief Junior Garmany and Mayor Boyd Graben, themselves
involved in farming, believe the results of our investigation require
further attention It is incumbent on all of us Military, state and
federal government to assists farmers to find out who the phantom
surgeons are. It seems basic to help the man who is responsible for
ensuring there is food available for our dinner tables. The farmer is
not interested in politically correct official explanations. He wants
to know what has happened to his livestock It should be the
responsibility of all law-enforcement to join together to find an
answer to this problem that is adversely affecting the cattle farmer,
here in Alabama.
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