Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume I Number 590 Monday, September 7th 1992 (C) Copyright 1992 Paranet Information Service. All Rights Reserved. Today's Topics: Cattle Mutilation Articles ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: agora.rain.com!krowell Subject: Cattle Mutilation Articles Date: 6 Sep 92 17:17:01 GMT From: krowell@agora.rain.com (Keith Rowell) The following cattle mutilation articles and two accompanying sidebars written by me were published in the Jan-Feb 1992 issue of the Oregon MUFON Observer, the local MUFON chapter newsletter. Of some note is the fact that we have three independent lab tests showing that the tissue making up the anomalously cut (serrated) incision on steer #4 was subjected during the incision process to high heat of 200-300 degrees F or above. The Hood River mutilation article follows the Fazio one. Some names are changed to protect identities. Everything else is true and factual to the best of my knowledge and understanding. Keith Rowell 9-2-92 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Cattle Mutilations: A Personal Odyssey by Keith Rowell I don't know precisely when I first became aware of the cattle mutilation stories, but it might have been with the Buzz Willets stories in the Willamette Week newpaper in Portland, OR, back in 1977. I was acquainted with the UFO literature for only about three or four years at that time, and I can't quite remember what my reaction was to the stories, but I did save them and I saved very few UFO things in those days. Little did I know at the time how involved I was later to become! In the December 19, 1977, issue of Willamette Week, Willets provided a good summary of the cattle mutilation mystery while including news of some recent mutilations outside LaGrande in August of 1977 followed by a September 28th mutilation near Joseph, OR. He also ran down the various theories for the mutilations: (1) unusual natural predators, (2) nationally organized 'satanic' cult, (3) UFOs, (4) secret government shenanigans. Being a hard-headed reporter, he apparently favored number 4 since the last part of his long article described an elaborate scenario involving a semi-truck rig carrying a small helicopter which was removed, assembled, and flown to the site of a herd of cows. The mutilations were then done, the helicopter was flown back, disassembled and repacked, and finally the semi moved on down the road Q all within three or four hours with no sightings of the semi-truck by people in the area! +From what I knew then, I would say to Willets, 'Maybe so.' +From what I know today, I would say, 'You're crazy!' Today it is a matter of public record, gained through Congressional hearings and painful court proceedings, that the CIA and other intelligence agencies have in fact engaged in 'experiments' on innocent and unknowing citizens of the United States. The LSD 'experiments' on some citizens in San Francisco in the 1950s come readily to mind. (Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain. Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD, and the Sixties Rebellion. Grove Press, 1985. p. xviii.) However, to my knowledge, there have been no longterm secret 'experiments' carried out on the public or on public or private property outside government jurisdiction lasting over decades. The cattle mutilations are now over 25 years duration. The cattle mutilations are secret government experiments? I don't think so. As I made my way through the UFO literature over the years, cattle mutilations popped up here and there. Usually, the references were skeptical of the connection between UFOs and the mutilations. I had collected a few books about the mutilations [see Animal Mutilations: The Literature] over the years and put them on my shelves unread. In the late spring to early summer of 1989, a rash of cattle mutilations broke out in central Oregon mostly south of Bend near Fort Rock and La Pine. I knew about these from three articles published in the Oregonian by correspondent Robert Shotwell. This piqued my curiosity, but I still didn't do much with the literature that sat on my shelf. At this point, I went off to the 1989 MUFON Symposium in Las Vegas, NV, where among others to speak was Linda Multon Howe. She is by far the most prominent cattle mutilation researcher today. After her talk, I briefly made contact with her to inform her about the recent mutilations in Oregon. She seemed interested in getting tissue samples, and I left my card with her. She did not get in touch with me to pursue the matter. I also let it drop. Then in the fall of 1989 I was invited to speak at the Portland UFO Group on the subject of animal mutilations and UFOs. I accepted and then began to intensively read the mutilation literature I had collected. I also wrote to Tom Adams, who had put together some newsletters about cattle mutilation in the 1970s and early 1980s. He sent me some copies of Stigmata and a new newsletter, Crux. The story goes like this. In a two week period of May of 1989, three ranchers near Fort Rock experienced what they thought were mysterious deaths of some of their cattle -- 23 head in all. One rancher, Gordon Wanek, happened to be a friend of a correspondent to the Oregonian by the name of Robert Shotwell. Wanek told Shotwell about the mysterious deaths and reported the deaths to the local sheriff's office. The office apparently made a preliminary investigation, and an officer by the name of Ron Johnson told Shotwell that it looked to him and to the ranchers involved that the cattle had been mutilated in some deliberate fashion, presumably by a person or persons. Within a week and a half of the mutilations, an official task force was formed consisting of representatives from the Oregon State Police, the Deschutes and Lake county sheriff's offices, the U.S. Forest Service, and the federal Bureau of Land Management. Around the beginning of July, the task force completed its evaluation of what killed the cattle. Mike Dugan of the Deschutes count district attorney's office issued a report which said that the cattle died as a result of unspecified natural causes and were subsequently attacked by natural predators, such as coyotes. He said they could find no evidence of a (satanic) cult being involved nor could they determine that the cattle had died from eating poisoned grained, which was stated earlier in the investigations by a Tumalo veterinarian, Martin Warbington. Warbington was not part of the official task force investigation. I decided to phone Robert Shotwell, the Oregonian correspondent, just to check the facts in his three Oregonian stories. On the 27th of November, I called up Shotwell and found him quite ready to talk to me, and he seemed to answer all my questions readily. He said: No mysterious lights or UFOs of any kind were reported to Shotwell in or around the time of the mutilations in May. The sheriff officer, Ron Johnson, has since been fired from his job, and Shotwell left me with the impression that he was fired because he talked freely early in the investigation about his ideas about the mutilations. Today, Johnson refuses to talk to Shotwell. As you can imagine, there are hard feelings on Johnson's part about the whole affair. Shotwell said that all of the people officially involved with the investigation have never talked freely with him both during and now after the investigation. Shotwell still has not seen a copy of the official report and can't seem to get one from the DA's office. Skip Schultz, our local MUFON state director of investigations, said that MUFON investigator Greg Long has tried to get a copy of the report through the mail and has failed so far. Also, Tom Adams, a nationally known investigator and collector of mutilation information, has received no replies from the Deschutes county sheriff's office nor from the Bend newspaper office regarding his inquiry for more information than appeared in the three Oregonian articles by Shotwell. All of Shotwell's information for his three articles came from three sources: Ron Johnson, Gordon Wanek and the other ranchers, and Martin Warbington, the Tumalo veterinarian. Official sources didn't want to talk to him. The Shotwell information formed the core of my own 'research' at the time of my PUFOG talk. But, fate would soon take an interesting turn, involving me deeper in the animal mutilation phenomenon and allowing me a real, firsthand investigative opportunity. In early June 1990, Carlo Sposito, a good friend I'd met at PUFOG meetings called me up to see if I wanted to work with him on some suspected, genuine cattle mutilations. I said, 'Yes, absolutely!' The Vancouver Columbian newspaper had just published some short articles about animal mutilations in the Vancouver area. We talked with the reporter who did the stories and eventually obtained some sheriff's department reports about the mutilations. Carlo pursued a few of the reports on his own and then called me in on the Fazio brothers series of mutilations. We had the perhaps unprecedented experience of beginning an investigation and having yet another mutilation occur after our investigation had begun on the same owner's property! The following is a summary of the circumstances of the Fazio brothers' cattle mutilations. Between June 1 and October 1 of 1990, five cattle were apparently mutilated artificially on the property of the New Columbia Gardens Farms, Inc., near Vancouver, WA. These mutilations occurred to cattle owned and grazed on three of the corporation's adjacent pasture lands, all mutilations being within one mile of each other. The Farms pastures where the cattle were mutilated are located between the Columbia River and Vancouver Lake, which is a large, shallow lake of about 8 square miles in size just west of the Vancouver city limits. The Farms properties lie within a rural, agricultural region on the fringe of the greater Portland metropolitan area. This is opposite Sauvie Island, which is on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. Not more than100 steers were grazed and fattened for market during 1990 on the corporation's patures. This small number of steers meant that the owners and employees kept a close eye on the health of all the animals. In fact, this circumstance enabled the investigators to take advantage of perhaps a unique opportunity in cattle mutilation investigations. One of the Farms' pastured steers died during the latter half of our investigations, and Richard, one of the owners of the corporation, graciously offered to deposit the dead animal nearby the last mutilated steer. This afforded the investigators the opportunity of investigating the predation of a naturally dead steer. The Environs A dairy farm operates along Lower River Road between the Farms property and the Vancouver city limits. Alcoa Aluminum runs a plant situated near the Columbia River also between the Farms property and the Vancouver city limits. The entrance to Vancouver Lake Park comes just before the turnoff to Lower River Road as you go on your way to the Farms property. The Park skirts the western edge of the Lake. Mutilation Descriptions In this report, the mutilated steers are named by number in the order of their discovery by the investigators. The following is a chronology of events surrounding each mutilated steer. Mutilation # 1 Mutilation #1 was discovered the first week of July by a field hand in a one by one half mile sized pasture near Lower River Road while he was mowing the field. Richard Fazio reported #1 to the Clark Count sheriff's department on or about June 25 as a mysterious death. A sheriff's deputy arrived the same day and took a statement from Richard. The deputy observed the steer, took at least six snapshot (color negative) photos for the record, and wrote up his report. The sheriff's department then notified a Clark County veterinarian, Randy Lee, who visited the site of #1 on June 26. Lee examined the carcass on the assumption that the steer was shot by an unknown assailant. He found no obvious signs of gunshot wounds. He also took the time to skin the animal to look for internal signs of gunshot wounds. He found none. A Vancouver Columbian newspaper reporter, David Cuillier, picked this report up and published a brief account of the mutilation in the Vancouver Columbian. Mutilation #2 Mutilation #2 was discovered by field hand James on July 5. He reported it to Richard Fazio. Richard called Carlo, and he and Carlo visited the site of #2 on July 5. Mutilation #2 was not reported to the sheriff's department or police. On July 6, Carlo , Richard, and I visited #2 and while we all three were driving in Richard's pickup truck there, Carlo spotted #3 in the same pasture about a 1000 feet north of the site of #1 and #2. Mutilation #2 was examined by Carlo . He found two small oblong holes in the hide on the lower neck. I took about 10 slides of #2 with a Minox GT (snapshot type) camera. Mutilation #2 was in an advanced state of decomposition. The contents of the stomach(s) had broken through and was spilling onto the ground. Mutilation #2 was about 50 feet from standing water, and the ground underneath and immediately surrounding the carcass was quite muddy. The field hand, James, had been near the site of #2 shortly after the time of #1's discovery and #2 was not there at that time. The distance between #1 and #2 was about 200 feet. #2 was northwest of #1. Mutilation #3 Mutilation #3 was discovered by Carlo as Carlo, Richard, and I were riding in Richard's pickup truck south along Lower River Road on July 6. We all visited #2 first at the south end of the pasture where #1 and #2 were found. Mutilation #1 was buried by a field hand before July 6. Mutilation #3 was about 2000 feet north of #1 and #2. Carlo examined #3 which was still in a state of rigor mortis. I took about ten slides with a Minox GT (snapshot type) camera. Randy Lee visited #3 one or two days after July 6. After visiting #2 and #3, we happened to see a sheriff's cruiser on Lower River Road, and we stopped him to report #3 verbally. Richard Fazio discouraged the deputy from writing up a formal report on #3 because at the time Richard thought that vandals might be causing the deaths of his steers. He did not want any curiosity seekers bothering him or his property. Mutilation #3 showed the usual missing tongue, serrated cut hide, and removal of anus and genitals. The large patch of hide removed was nowhere to be found within a radius of 200 feet of the steer, which was true of all the animals. Mutilation #4 On October 2, Carlo called David Cuillier, reporter for the Vancouver Columbian, and found out about mutilation #4. Mutilation #4 was found in a separate New Columbia Garden Farms, Inc., pasture. The location of #4 in relation to #1, #2, and #3 was about two miles slightly east of north. On October 3 or 4, Carlo called Richard Fazio and Randy Lee. On October 5, Lee visited the site and took a sample of #4 around the lip where it looked like some mutilation had occurred. He otherwise left the carcass intact. On October 6, Richard, Carlo, and I visited the site. Carlo took tissue samples with a scalpel and otherwise examined the carcass. I took over 30 slides with closeup (Nikon) equipment. On October 8, Carlo and Lee's, secretary, Marilyn, who was keenly interested in the mutilation business, visited the site. Marilyn took VHS video of Carlo giving a general description of the state of the carcass at that time. Carlo visited the carcass on October 9 and took more (color negative) photos with a 35mm camera. On October 13, Carlo, Randy Lee, and I visited the site once more. More general observation and examination of the carcass was done. I took another 30 slides. Carlo and Randy opened up the carcass to take both lung tissue samples and body fluid from deep inside the thorax of the animal. Mutilation #5 On October 6, Richard, Carlo, and I discovered the location of mutilation #5. This was located about 1.5 miles slightly east of north of the location of mutilations #1, #2, and #3. This was located from memory by Richard having been told the approximate whereabouts by a neighboring farm owner back in July. I took about ten slides and Carlo made general observations. These photos show traces of the characteristic serrated hide cut. Non-Mutilation On October 19, Richard had a steer die of shipping fever. He volunteered to haul the animal out to the site of #4 for us to do comparison observation of predation on the two carcasses. We eagerly agreed. He placed the non-mutilation animal about 30 feet from the carcass of #4. On October 25, Carlo visited the site of #4 and the non-mutilation to do general observation and take about 20 (color negative) photos. On October 31, Carlo again visited the site of #4 and the non-mutilation for more general observation. Tissue Analysis Tissue samples were taken from three of the steers: mutilation #2 and #4, and the non-mutilation. Tissue samples of #4 were sent to John Altshuler, who is an associate of Linda Howe, and by the veterinarian, Randy Lee, to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University. The director of a Portland area forensic laboratory has sectioned and examined tissue from #4 and believes that the cells around the serrated cut area have been subjected to unusually high heat. He also believes this heat could not have been caused by any decomposition processes within the carcass of the animal or by any direct or indirect effects caused by natural predation related to insects or large predators. John Altshuler, who is a medical doctor specializing in hematology and pathology, received tissue samples of mutilation #4 from Carlo. John told Carlo over the phone that the mutilation #4 sample was visually very similar to samples he had received of other suspected mutilations. Randy Lee sent a tissue specimen consisting of 'fixed tissue' from a 'hereford cross steer' male, 2 years old, which was received by the lab on 12 February 1991. Jody Jones Lee, DVM, signed the 'Report of Laboratory Examinations'. The 'Pathologist Report' states: 'HISTOPATHOLOGY: Sections of skin from a steer are examined. All sections display moderately severe post-mortem autolysis. The notched edge does exhibit a band of coagulation necrosis consistent with a heat induced incision, such as with an electrosurgical unit. Numerous bacteria are present on the skin, except in the area of coagulation necrosis. This is consistent with a specimen collected via electrosurgical excision. DIAGNOSIS: Coagulation necrosis of the skin. COMMENT: It is not possible to tell whether this lesion was caused by a laser. It does appear consistent with a heat-induced injury.' UFO events But what about the UFO connection to these mutilations. It turns out there there are some, but they are not exceedingly strong, just suggestive. And they are there, although many mutilation cases have no associated UFO reports. The Adams's Toni and Helen Locklear of Vancouver, WA, were trying out their new video camera along Lower River Road in December of 1988. When they spotted a UFO. They then proceeded to video tape 10 minutes of the UFO. I have seen this video and it shows very clearly two distinct, apparently high flying, extremely thick and robust 'condensation trails'. They look like no condensation trails I have ever seen, however. Columbia River Orange Ball with Recorded Sound In the fall of 1980, an orange, glowing UFO was observed to move at low altitude and slow speed along the Columbia River starting around the Sauvie Island area and proceeding up river to cross the I-5 bridge, which connects Portland and Vancouver. I-5 is the main Oregon/Washington artery. It disappeared somewhere around the Government Island area, which is near Portland International Airport. The UFO was observed by a policeman who called a local radio station at the time of observation, and the radio station recorded a sound thought by the policeman and other witnesses to be emanating from the UFO. The UFO sound recording was later sent on to the Center for UFO Studies, where it was eventually analyzed by a highly qualified acoustics expert. The expert concluded that the sound on the tape would have been almost impossible to duplicate in the open-air situation of its recording. Lois and Joan Lois and Joan live less than a mile from the Farms pasture where mutilations #1, #2, and #3 were found. Their rented house is right on Lower River Road back toward Vancouver from the pasture. Late one night they both heard loud noises akin to farm machinery in the direction of the Farms pasture from their house. They thought this was odd since they had never heard 'farm machinery noise' so late at night in their more than two years of living in this location. About two years earlier, Marty and Shawn witnessed typical UFO activity Q anomalous lights and a UFO itself Q along Lower River Road and in the environs around their house. Rachel Rachel, a neighbor and friend of Richard Fazio, lives north of the Fazio property along Lower River Road in an old farm house. She goes past the Fazio property every workday at night since she worked in Vancouver cleaning offices at night during the period of the Fazio mutilations. During one night around 3 AM when she was routinely driving north along Lower River Road back home after working at her night time office cleaning job, she noticed two lights in a field. This was the same field that mutilations #1, #2, and #3 were found. The two lights were very near the location of mutilations #1 and #2. These two small, white/yellowish lights and their movement brought to mind the thought that two people must be looking for something in the field with flashlights. However, she was spooked enough by the sight of lights 'that weren't supposed to be there at that time of night' that she thought better of her first impulse to stop and investigate. She drove on to her house and didn't return. Fazio Mutilations Conclusions We observed no evidence whatsoever of 'satanic' cult activity anywhere around the Fazio mutilations. We heard no evidence about strange vans, cars, or trucks 'with government markings, etc.', anywhere around the Fazio mutilations. The sheriff's department found no evidence of vandals, prowlers, etc., anywhere around the Fazio mutilations, and have pursued no legal actions against any vandals, prowlers, etc. But, we do find typical UFO activity near in location and some near in time also to the Fazio mutilations. Therefore, we arrive at the preliminary conclusion that UFO activity is probably responsible. Remember, we have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the mutilations are indeed artificial since the laboratory analysis of the tissue making up the serrated cut shows the application of high heat of 200 to 300 degress Fahrenheit, according to John Altshuler and the forensic laboratory director. After the October mutilation, the Fazio's have reported no new mutilations. As you can imagine, this firsthand investigative experience has convinced me more than ever that those 'crazy mutologists' are really on to something. And lots of people in positions of power don't really want to seriously investigate. I guess I can't see how the officials who investigated the Fort Rock/La Pine mutilations could have possibly misinterpreted what was going on. How could they have missed the telltale serrated incisions which are present on most mutilations, as I understand it? This is a give-away. Even if none of the Fort Rock/La Pine mutilations exhibited the serrated incisions, there are still enough other symptoms to at least conclude that the mutilations are artificially done. +++++++++++++++++++SIDEBAR++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mutilations: The Facts The facts about animal mutilations are hard to come by. Remember, just like UFOs, there have been very few publically available establishment studies of the phenomenon. Only the Rommel Report qualifies as a bonafide establishment study. At any rate, here are the facts as most ufologists understand them. The animal mutilations are usually reported of cattle, but horses, pigs, goats, and other domesticated animals are sometimes reported. Rarely, dogs and cats are reported along with deer and other wild animals. The animal is reported to be mutilated with a sharp instrument of some sort, many times in a 'cookie cutter' style with serrated edges. An ear or eye may be missing. The lower jaw may have flesh removed. The tongue may be cut out from deep in the throat. The sex organs and rectum may be 'cored' out, sometimes to a fairly deep depth. No blood or very little blood is associated with these strange wounds in the animal. Little blood is found on the animal itself or on the ground around the animal. Almost always there are no tracks leading up to or away from the dead carcass. Animals have been reported from wet, soggy ground or in snow where you would normally expect to find some sort of tracks. The carcass is reported to be left alone by normal scavengers, like coyotes, for an abnormally long time. Some mutilation reports claim that the carcass has suffered no large predator damage for a week or more at a time. When a cow dies normally, scavengers attack the carcass within a 24 hour period and can have it scavenged down to the bones within a few days. Mutilations happen almost always at night. As far as the seasons go, they seem to occur less frequently in the winter time, but occur more or less equally in the spring, summer, and fall months. Animal mutilations have been reported from Australia, Canada, England, continental Europe, Puerto Rico, and some South American countries. Reports are practically non-existent for Africa and Asia. This is probably due to a lack of reporting. In the United States, most mutilations occur to cattle and are centered in the western states, though some mutilations have occurred in just about every state of the Union since 1967. Estimates of the total number of mutilations within the U.S. and Canada vary from 5000 to 15,000 from 1964 to today. These estimates are very speculative though. +++++++++++++++++++SIDEBAR++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mutilations: The Literature In 1986, an invaluable resource for ufology was published: Eberhart, George Eberhart, a librarian and UFO researcher wrote and compiled UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement: a bibliography. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986. 1298pp. ISBN 0-8108-1919-8.) Two volumes: Volume One Q Unidentified Flying Objects, Volume Two: The Extraterrestrial Contact Movement. An invaluable resource! This huge bibliographic work has over 15,000 citations to books, articles, movies, TV appearances, dissertations, conferences, etc., about UFOs and related information including cattle mutilations. +From George Eberhart's UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement: a bibliography, we learn that the animal mutilation literature consists of 26 monographs (a term that includes books and pamphlets) and 77 magazine articles. (Newspaper articles are not listed in the bibliography, but I would ball park guess that about 2000 articles have been written in the 25 years of the mutilation phenomenon.) Out of the book literature only 6 are over 150 pages. The majority are self- published or are published by one-at-a-time publishers. Here are the 'big' names in the publishers: Stackpole, Manor, Times Books, Sunbelt Press (New Mexico), the State of New Mexico (Rommel Report), and Bantam. Note that the only book readily available to the reading public in used bookstores or in public libraries is a debunking book (Bantam) written by Daniel Kagan and Ian Summers. +From these 26 monographs, four books stand out as fairly easily obtainable and substantial in their treatment of the the subject. Howe, Linda Moulton. An Alien Harvest: Further Evidence Linking Animal Mutilations and Human Abductions to Alien Life Forms. Littleton, CO: Linda Moulton Howe Productions, 1989. 455pp. ISBN 0-9620570-1-0. Donovan, Roberta and Keith Wolverton. Mystery Stalks the Prairie. Raynesford, MT: T.H.A.R. Institute, 1976. 108pp. Kagan, Daniel and Ian Summers. Mute Evidence. New York: Bantam Books, 1983. 504pp. ISBN 0-522-23318-1. Albers, Michael D. The Terror. New York: Manor Books, 1979. 504pp. ISBN 0-532-23311-5. Howe's Book Howe is a producer of TV documentaries and has even won a regional Emmy award for one of them. She is a graduate of Stanford University and even boasts a Miss Idaho title in her background. Howe's book has just been published this year in the spring and is therefore not in Eberhart's bibliography. But, I feel certain that it will get top billing as the best of the pro cattle mutilation books in the next edition of his bibliography. Howe's book is big and glossy. It includes many facsimiles of documents and many illustrations. It is well-produced and is published by Howe herself. She is convinced that the cattle mutilations are definitely related to the UFO and gathers a lot of evidence to try to convince you of that. Donovan and Wolverton's Book The other reasonably substantial book, but nothing like Howe's, is on the pro cattle mutilation side. Donovan is a retired Montana newspaper reporter, and Wolverton was a captain in the sheriff's department of a Montana county that was particularly hard hit by mutilations during the 1970s. Their book is an attempt to tell the factual story of Wolverton's investigation of cattle mutilations, UFOs, and tall, hairy creatures (bigfoot) in the period between August of 1974 and May of 1976 near the town of Great Falls and the Malmstrom US Air Force Base. There are a number of gory pictures of mutilated cattle in the book, and the first third tells of Wolverton's investigations into these. The middle third is devoted to the numerous UFO reports seemingly associated with the cattle mutilations. And the last third goes into some rather far out stories with a chapter about some bigfoot sightings. You get a sense of context for the cattle mutilations with Donovan and Wolverton's book. Also mentioned are mysterious helicopters associated with some mutilations. Kagan and Summer's Book Kagan and Summer's book is a chatty book that tells you a lot about the cattle mutilation scene in addition to the facts about the mutilations themselves. Kagan and Summers both hail from back East, specifically New York City. Kagan is a jack-of-all-trades publisher, writer, singer, managing director, and former correctional officer, and Summers is a science fiction 'author/packager'! (I am not kidding about this. Their book includes biographies of both of them in the back.) According to John Keel, pro-UFO author, their book is almost entirely the product of Kagan, and Summers went along for the ride. The book starts out fine. They tell us that Summers first learned of the cattle mutilations while he was a guest on a Denver radio talk show. He was promoting his latest book. They tell us that they have open minds and begin by accumulating as much written information from as many people as they can. They soon learn that there is an 'underground mutology network' along with the official establishment. The mutology network consists of self-appointed investigators, whereas the official establishment, of course, consists of mainstream police officers, government officials, and veterinary pathologists. After 150 pages out of 500, Kagan and Summers reveal themselves to be thoroughly enamored of the establishment viewpoint. The Rommel Report, a report written for the district attorney of the first district of New Mexico in June of 1980, held all the answers to them. This report was compiled and presented by an ex-FBI agent, Ken Rommel. The reasoning and information in this report coupled with Kagan and Summers' basic ignorance of the far-reaching nature of the UFO mystery, and I believe their ignorance of the literature of the paranormal in general, convinced them that there was essentially no mystery in the cattle mutilation phenomenon. The last half of the book consists of a description of their visits to various cattle mutilation venues, but without apparently ever examining a single alleged cattle mutilation themselves. However, they talked to quite a few people involved in one way or another with the cattle mutilation phenomenon. By the last half of the book everything is interpreted according to their idea that there really is no mystery. Albers' Book Albers' book is a straighforward, reporter-style book about the facts of the mutilation situation. In many ways, it is the soberest of the whole lot since he explores all the major explanations after a good presentation of the evidence and circumstances. He arrives at the UFO as the probable culprit. The book is not impressive though because of the lack of pictures. No Major Investigative Reporting Books To me, a very strange thing about the cattle mutilations is that despite the widespread and longterm nature of the subject. And, despite the abundance of easily gathered evidence, in contrast to the UFO, there is a real lack of literature covering the mutilations. There are a lot more books about bigfoot than the cattle mutilations. There are even more books about the Loch Ness Monster. It seems to me that cattle mutilations are ripe for the picking for any enterprising young journalist with experience and connections. He or she could do a great expose on the cattle mutilation coverup and bring it to national attention. Well, we can only hope. . . +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hood River Mutilation Discovered by Keith Rowell On November 10th or 11th of last year, Ken Packer discovered a dead and mutilated, seven year old cow of his in the pasture just a 100 yards out his back door. Packer, a Hood River, Oregon, orchard farmer in his forties said that it took him only a few minutes of examination to determine that his cow was mutilated and not simply dead of disease followed by predation. The cow was a descendent of his prize-winning herd of 20 years ago. Today, he doesn't show his cattle like he used to, but still likes to keep a few head around. They number around 20. He is sure the cow was not sick before he found it mutilated. Packer immediately noted the eye was missing along with some hide around the eye socket. At first he thought that the cow had been shot by a vandal, but soon ruled that out when he saw how it was mutilated and that no meat had been taken. As he walked around the animal, he discovered that the entire udder and surrounding hide was also removed, apparently with some sharp instrument because the hide was not torn as it is when predators do their work. Also gone were the rectum, vulva, and vagina. When he came back to the head, he bent down, looked into the mouth, and much to his astonishment, the tongue was gone, apparently cut off toward the back of the mouth. Because he felt this animal died in an unusual manner, Packer called the Hood River sheriff's department. Both he and the sheriff's deputy examined the carcass the next day. Packer noted that the animal looked the same with no obvious signs of large animal predation. In fact, Packer maintains that predation did not start until about two weeks after the animal died. In early December, Erick Byler, a Salem-based MUFON field investigator, learned of the Hood River mutilation through some friends of some friends. Byler called Skip Schultz, MUFON State Director, and they both decided to pursue an investigation. Byler called Packer and found that the animal was still left undisturbed where it fell in the pasture. Byler and Carlo Sposito, veteran mutilation investigator, traveled to Hood River to do a preliminary investigation on December 13th. The next day Carlo called in Keith Rowell, MUFON field investigator out of Clackamas county. They arrived about noon, talked again to Ken Packer, and the three of them proceeded to the mutilation site. Carlo took numerous close-up photos as he gathered various tissue samples in and around the areas of mutilation Q eyes, abdomen, rectal area, and mouth. Keith concentrated on making a complete video tape record of the mutilated animal and its immediate environment. Eight different tissue samples were taken and preserved in Formalin for later analysis by interested laboratories. For past mutilation tissue samples, Sposito has obtained analyses from three different laboratories. Careful manipulation of the cut hide edges revealed that some felt smooth and flexible, whereas other areas adjacent to the same cut edge felt hardened and ridged or bumpy. One distinctive hallmark of genuine mutilations is the so- called cookie-cutter style of cut edge. Laboratory analysis of this cookie-cutter incision in past mutilations shows that high heat of at least 200 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit has been applied to the cookie- cutter incisions, perhaps during the actual cutting of the tissue. One Oregon State Veterinary Laboratory report of a recent mutilation sample speculated that electrocautery may have been used. Rowell talked further with Packer about his experiences with ordinary animal death followed by predation and decomposition of the carcass. Packer said over the years he has witnessed this a number of times. In his experience, large animal predators start working on the animal within 24 to 48 hours. Coyotes and others usually find an opening in the underbelly area and continue to work on and enlarge that before they go elsewhere. They certainly don't remove the tongue, udder, rectum, eyeball, etc., overnight Q not in his experience anyway. Packer volunteered a story about a cow of his calving way out in a back pasture. Because of work pressures, Packer could not get the newborn calf back to his barn for the evening. Sadly, in the morning, large predators, probably coyotes, had already gotten to the calf. It was half eaten by the time Packer got back the next day. In contrast, his mutilation lay just as he found it the first day for around two weeks before the predators began working on it. When Sposito and Rowell arrived a month after the death, predation and decomposition was obviously in progress, but they believe that some remains of the original cookie-cutter incisions were still in evidence. Later laboratory analysis may confirm this speculation. The mutilation was found in the pasture where the animal normally lived, just inside a seven foot fence. Beyond the fence is the apple orchard Packer was about to spray when he discovered the animal. The animal was positioned directly in the normal path the rest of the herd travels from their barn to the upper pasture. This lower part of the pasture near Packer's house is filled with Douglas Firs, and the animal was at the drip line of the trees. Historically, genuine cattle mutilations have been associated sometimes with typical UFO activity. So, Rowell asked Packer about this. Packer said he knew of no UFO activity in the Hood River area during 1991. Packer noticed no other unusual activity of any kind that might be associated with the death of his cow. ******************************************************************************* Submissions infopara@scicom.alphacdc.com Administrative requests infopara-request@scicom.alphacdc.com FTP archive grind.isca.uiowa.edu:/info/paranet/infopara Permission to distribute Michael.Corbin@paranet.org Private mail to Paranet/Fidonet users firstname.lastname@paranet.org UUCP gateway {ncar,isis,csn}!scicom *********************End**of**the**InfoPara**Newsletter************************