Gabe Valdez and the Dulce cattle mutilations
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 10
| Person | Gabriel L. "Gabe" Valdez (c. 1944 – 7 August 2011), New Mexico State Police officer at Dulce |
|---|---|
| Investigations | About 32 livestock mutilation cases in roughly three years, late 1970s |
| His view | A well-resourced human operation, "not from outer space"; later believed by his son to be government radiation testing |
| Official finding | Kenneth Rommel's "Operation Animal Mutilation" (June 1980): predators, scavengers and natural death |
| Legacy | Linked to Paul Bennewitz and the "Dulce Base" legend; featured in Mirage Men |
| Date | 16 February 1979 |
| Topics | Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | Gabe Valdez, Harrison Schmitt, Kenneth Rommel, Paul Bennewitz |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 88 |
| Year | 1979 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1979 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 10 |
Gabriel L. "Gabe" Valdez (c. 1944–2011) was a New Mexico State Police officer who in the late 1970s investigated cattle mutilations around Dulce, on the Jicarilla Apache reservation. He came to believe that a well-organised human operation, probably involving the government, was responsible.[1] An FBI memo of 16 February 1979 records his views.[2] A federally funded investigation concluded in 1980 that the deaths and injuries were consistent with natural causes and scavengers.[3][6]
Background
Valdez grew up in a ranching family south of Tierra Amarilla. "We had about 30 head of cattle," he recalled.[1] His early career:[1]
- First jobs. He worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs roads department, and in 1969 was listed as city marshal of Chama.
- State Police. He joined the New Mexico State Police in 1969 and, after brief postings in Española and Chimayó, was transferred to Dulce.
- Other cases. Local papers covered him helping fight flooding at the racer Bobby Unser's ranch in 1973, joining a rescue of snowed-in hunters in 1984, and recovering $19,000 and suspected cocaine from a plane crash that year.
The investigations
In the 1970s cattle found dead with organs removed and apparently precise cuts were reported across the western United States. By some estimates 10,000 head had been mutilated by 1979, and New Mexico reported more than 100 cases from 1975.[3][6] Valdez's cases:[1][6]
- June 1976. After investigating a mutilation on Manuel Gomez's ranch, he told reporters on 16 June that a three-legged aircraft had landed twice and scorched the grass. Rommel's later report traced the first Dulce "tripod marks" to a case investigated on 13 June 1976. There, round four-inch indentations led to the carcass, and the police report said "the tripod marks had returned and removed the left ear".
- 1979. By then he had worked on 32 cases in about three years and was described as the state's chief source of information on mutilations.
- The Torrance County bull. On 2 May 1979 he told the press that a bull found in Torrance County on 15 February contained chlorpromazine, a tranquilliser, and a second drug used to remove blood. "We know this stuff is made here, and it isn't from outer space," he said. "Whoever is doing it is highly sophisticated... They're well organized."
- Helicopters. In 1982 he was mentioned in connection with helicopter sightings near mutilations.
Similar helicopter reports came from elsewhere. A former Wyoming undersheriff recalled finding rotor wash and skid marks near carcasses.[3]
Federal involvement
.jpg)
Federal involvement came slowly, then in several stages:[1][3][6][7]
- 1974. FBI Director Clarence Kelley told Nebraska's Senator Carl Curtis that no federal law within the FBI's jurisdiction appeared to have been violated.
- Schmitt's pressure. New Mexico's Senator Harrison Schmitt pressed for action. The Senate Appropriations Committee directed the FBI to "maintain its investigation".
- The grant. On 1 February 1979 the district attorney of New Mexico's First Judicial District applied for a $44,170 federal grant to investigate.
- The conference. On 20 April 1979 Schmitt and U.S. Attorney R. E. Thompson held a public meeting on the mutilations in Albuquerque, attended by about 80 people. There the electronics businessman Paul Bennewitz told Valdez he had seen unidentified lights over Kirtland Air Force Base.
- The FBI inquiry. The FBI opened an inquiry limited to tribal lands. It examined paint flakes from a pickup truck, concluded the damage was consistent with predators, and closed the case in 1980.
The Rommel report
The grant funded an investigation by Kenneth Rommel, a recently retired FBI agent. His report, "Operation Animal Mutilation", appeared in June 1980:[3][6]
- The cases. Rommel gathered information on 90 reported New Mexico mutilations and found that "none of these cases could be confirmed as classic" mutilations.
- The causes. Where cause of death was known, there was "nothing mysterious". Most animals had died of diseases such as blackleg.
- Los Alamos. In a 1977 letter, scientists at the Los Alamos laboratory reported that about 15 suspected cases they examined were consistent with death from disease.
- Dulce. He noted that much of the evidence for an organised operation came from the Dulce area. He quoted a taped interview in which the Dulce officer, asked why mutilated animals never landed on their cut side, said, "It's a crazy thing... You start looking into it and you can go crazy over it."
The report concluded that the cases were the result of natural death followed by predator and scavenger damage. Valdez and others rejected that conclusion.[1][3][6]
Later life
In 1990 Valdez transferred to Albuquerque so his sons could attend university there. He retired from the State Police around 1992 and became an investigator for the New Mexico Gaming Control Board. In 1996 he joined Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science. He died on 7 August 2011.[1]
Legacy
Mark Pilkington's 2010 book Mirage Men and the 2013 documentary of the same name described how Air Force disinformation targeted Bennewitz and Valdez. The documentary included footage of Valdez.[1] The campaign helped turn Dulce into the centre of legends about an underground alien base. Bennewitz, who believed he had found such a base, was later hospitalised.[4]
In 2014 Valdez's son Greg published Dulce Base: The Truth and Evidence from the Case Files of Gabe Valdez. He wrote that his father "never believed there was alien activity. He pointed toward the government." Greg argued the mutilations were a government program studying the after-effects of Project Gasbuggy, a 1967 underground nuclear explosion about 21 miles south-west of Dulce.[1][4]
Several other cited sources are no longer readable:[5][8][9][10]
- an archived FBI index of animal-mutilation files
- an AFU-hosted document series
- a page of Timothy Good's Alien Contact on archive.org
- a linked PDF
Some were offline and others restricted.
People and topics
- Federal Bureau of Investigation — The U.S. federal police agency, which helped check flying disc reports from 1947 to 1950.
- Dulce — A New Mexico town linked to legends of an underground alien base.
- Gabe Valdez — New Mexico State Police officer who investigated cattle mutilations near Dulce.
- Harrison Schmitt — Apollo astronaut and New Mexico senator who pressed for a cattle mutilation inquiry.
- Kenneth Rommel — Former FBI agent whose 1980 report attributed most cattle mutilations to natural causes.
- Disinformation — False information spread deliberately to mislead.
- Paul Bennewitz — Albuquerque physicist targeted by Air Force disinformation in the Bennewitz affair.
On the Timeline
- Mississippi UFO resolution (1979) (February 1979) — A Mississippi resolution calling for a Senate UAP investigation dies in committee.
- Hampton Roads bodies claim (1979) (5 April 1979) — A source says 13 bodies and two saucers were stored at a base in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
See every 1979 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- UFO files — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- Cattle mutilation — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Animal Mutilation file — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- Los Alamos National Laboratory — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- Gabe Valdez — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- FBI records on animal mutilation, FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- "Cattle mutilations across Wyoming and the West in 1970s still a mystery", Cowboy State Daily (Oct 2024) · cowboystatedaily.com · archived copy
- Paul Bennewitz — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- FBI animal mutilation files (archived FOIA index) · webarchive.library.unt.edu · archived copy
- Rommel report: Operation Animal Mutilation (1980) — text · ufopedia.pages.dev · archived copy
- FBI cattle mutilation files (1970s) — UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- files.afu.se · files.afu.se · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- nebula.wsimg.com · nebula.wsimg.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Gabe Valdez”, “Paul Bennewitz”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.