FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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 bons, 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 andfederal
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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