Cattle mutilation

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Cattle mutilation (also known as bovine excision^[1] and unexplained livestock death,^[2] or animal mutilation) is the killing and mutilation of cattle under supposedly unusual, usually bloodless circumstances. This phenomenon has been observed among wild animals as well. Worldwide, sheep, horses, goats, pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, bison, moose, deer and elk have been reported mutilated with similar bloodless excisions; often an ear, eyeball, jaw flesh, tongue, lymph nodes, genitals and rectum are removed.

Since the first reports of animal mutilations, various explanations have been offered, ranging from natural decomposition and normal predation to cults and secretive governmental and military agencies, to a range of speculations, including cryptid predators (such as the chupacabra) and extraterrestrials. Mutilations have been the subject of two independent federal investigations in the United States.^[3]