About Cattle mutilations
Cattle mutilations refer to a phenomenon where livestock are discovered dead with missing body parts and seemingly precise wounds, with reports surging in the western and midwestern United States from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. While some ranchers and the public blamed cults, secret government projects, or UFOs, official investigations generally concluded that most cases were the result of natural deaths followed by scavengers and decomposition.
- Also known as
- Animal mutilations, "mutes"
- Main wave
- Late 1960s – early 1980s, western and midwestern United States
- First famous case
- "Snippy" the horse, Alamosa, Colorado, September 1967
- Main inquiry
- Operation Animal Mutilation (Kenneth Rommel), report June 1980
- Official finding
- Mostly natural death, predators and scavengers
The full story, section by section
The story of Cattle mutilations in 7 parts. Tap any part to read it in full.
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Early historyUnexplained livestock deaths have been recorded for centuries.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
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The 1970s waveFrom the early 1970s mutilations were reported in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico and elsewhere.Read this part →
Cattle Mutilations by county in Kansas and Nebraska published on December 13 1973 · Photo: Kansas law enforcement, December 1973, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons -
InvestigationsAs public pressure grew, several agencies investigated.Read this part →
Range cattle exposed to radioactive dust from the 1945 Trinity atomic test in New Mexico. · Photo: Federal Government of the United States, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons -
ExplanationsMost scientists, veterinarians and many farmers explain the mutilations as natural death followed by ordinary processes.Read this part →
Ken Rommel speaks on "cattle mutilations" at the 1983 CSICOP Conference, Buffalo, NY · Photo: Robert Sheaffer, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons -
Historical contextThe historian Michael J. Goleman argues that ranchers' conflicts with the federal government fuelled sinister explanations.Read this part →
The Project Gasbuggy site in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, linked by Greg Valdez to the Dulce mutilations. · Photo: Chubbles, CC0, Wikimedia Commons -
Later reportsMany cases have been reported worldwide since 1967, mainly in the Americas and Australia; in South America an estimated 3,500 have been reported since 2002, when there were about 400.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
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In popular cultureBooks on the subject include David Perkins's Altered Steaks (1982), Mute Evidence (1984) by the journalists Daniel Kagan and Ian Summers, and Christopher O'Brien's Stalking the Herd (2014).Read this part →
Lamp depicting gray aliens in a flying saucer abducting a cow · Photo: Espen Klem, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Key people
The people at the centre of the story — witnesses, investigators, officials and sceptics:
- Charles FortCharles Fort was an American writer and researcher born in Albany, New York, in 1874 who lived until 1932. He spent decades collecting reports of anomalous phenomena ignored by science, publishing fo…
- J. Allen HynekJ. Allen Hynek was an American astronomer and professor who served for over two decades as the U.S.
- Gabe ValdezGabriel L. "Gabe" Valdez was a New Mexico State Police officer and investigator best remembered for leading the criminal investigation into unsolved livestock mutilations in northern New Mexico durin…
- Donald FlickingerDon Davis Flickinger was a U.S. military flight surgeon, Air Force brigadier general, and pioneer in aerospace medicine who lived from 1907 to 1997.
- Harrison SchmittHarrison Schmitt is an American geologist, former NASA astronaut, and former U.S. senator who became the twelfth person to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
- Paul BennewitzPaul Bennewitz was an American businessman and UFO investigator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who came to believe he was filming alien craft and uncovered a secret underground alien base near Kir…
- Kenneth RommelRetired FBI agent Kenneth Rommel led a federally funded investigation in New Mexico from May 1979 into reported cattle mutilations. His 1980 report examined roughly 90 cases and concluded that natura…
- Colm KelleherColm A. Kelleher is a biochemist who transitioned from a career in molecular biology to investigate scientific anomalies, fringe science, and paranormal topics. He served as the deputy administrator …
- Linda Moulton HoweLinda Moulton Howe is an American documentary maker and investigative journalist who became a prominent figure in ufology by reporting on UFOs, crop circles, and animal mutilations. Her 1980 televisi…
- Richard DotyRichard Doty is a retired U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations special agent who operated primarily at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico during the late 1970s and 1980s.
- William MooreWilliam Leonard "Bill" Moore is an American author and UFO researcher born in 1943 who became prominent during the late 1970s and 1980s. He co-authored books with Charles Berlitz about the Philadelph…
- John KeelJohn Alva Keel was an American journalist, television writer, and influential ufologist who lived from 1930 to 2009. He rejected the extraterrestrial hypothesis, instead arguing that UFOs, monsters, …
- Edmund GomezEdmund Gomez was a rancher in Dulce, New Mexico, whose family land experienced numerous cattle mutilations starting in the mid-1970s. In October 1988, he participated in an expedition to Archuleta Me…
Related cases & events
Events and sightings linked to Cattle mutilations:
🗓️ Event · 6 min readGabe Valdez and the Dulce cattle mutilationsDuring the late 1970s in New Mexico, State Police officer Gabe Valdez investigated numerous cattle mutilation cases near the town of Dulce. Valdez believed the mutilations were a sophisticated human operation rather than the result of outer space activity. Ho…
🗓️ Event · 4 min readArmy helicopters and cattle mutilations (2001)This article is about a journal-recorded claim from February 2001 linking 1970s cattle mutilations to unidentified helicopters and a possible Army black programme. The claims stemmed from waves of unexplained livestock deaths and deputy sheriff accounts in va…🗓️ Event · 6 min readSaucer-like helicopters claim (1984)This article is about an uncorroborated 1984 journal entry by Jacques Vallée describing a claim that a mercenary group used helicopters designed to look like flying saucers for nuclear security testing. The claim originated from a second-hand account told by …
🗓️ Event · 5 min readUnmarked helicopter claim (1975)The article is about unverified claims from 1975 regarding unmarked military helicopters and UFO crash retrievals, which were collected by researcher Leonard Stringfield from an anonymous Air Force officer. The informant alleged that squadrons of these helico…Programs, organizations & documents
The official programs, groups and papers involved:
Books, films & documentaries
Where to read and watch more:
🎬 Book or film · 5 min readThe New York TimesThe New York Times is a major American daily newspaper best known in UFO history for its December 2017 article revealing the Pentagon's secret Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program and publishing Navy videos of unidentified objects. This coverage a…
🎬 Book or film · 5 min readMirage MenMirage Men is a 2010 book and 2013 documentary film that argue U.S. military and intelligence insiders fabricated modern UFO folklore to deflect attention from classified projects and discredit investigators.Related topics & places
Ideas, terms and places that come up in the story:
📖 Term · 17 min readUnidentified flying objectAn unidentified flying object, or UFO, is an unexplained phenomenon or object seen in the sky, with the modern craze originating in the United States in June 1947. While popular culture often equates UFOs with alien spacecraft, most investigations reveal them…
📍 Place · 9 min readSandia National LaboratoriesSandia National Laboratories is a U.S. research and development facility headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
📍 Place · 6 min readKirtland Air Force BaseKirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that serves as a major center for military research, nuclear weapons work, and the largest known repository of nuclear weapons in the world. Originally begin…
📖 Term · 10 min readAlien abductionAlien abduction is the claim that individuals are taken against their will by non-human beings aboard a spacecraft to undergo physical and psychological procedures. Reports of these events occurred worldwide between 1952 and 1995, with the first widely public…🗓️ Cattle mutilations on the UAP timeline
- An FBI memo relays a police officer's claim of a cover-up of New Mexico cattle mutilations. Read the article →
- Vallée hears of cattle mutilations linked to Army helicopters. Read the article →
🛸 UFO sightings about Cattle mutilations
Sightings that mention Cattle mutilations
More in the encyclopedia
Other articles that link to or mention Cattle mutilations:
- Secrecy & cover-up (topic)This overview page covers official secrecy, classification, and cover-up claims regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena from 1947 to 2023. It outlines historical classified studies, released gover…
- Government programs (topic)This encyclopedia overview outlines government and private programs established to study UFOs and UAPs from 1947 to 2023. U.S.
- Jacques ValléeJacques Vallée is a French computer scientist, internet pioneer, venture capitalist, author, astronomer, and ufologist born in 1939. He began his career as an astronomer, co-developing NASA's first d…
- Bob LazarBob Lazar is an American who claimed in 1989 that he worked on reverse-engineering extraterrestrial spacecraft at a secret site near Area 51 in Nevada. Investigators and skeptics found no evidence of…
- DIA interest in Skinwalker RanchIn 2007, a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) official named James Lacatski became interested in Skinwalker Ranch in Utah after reading a book about the property. This led to Lacatski visiting the ran…
- Nuclear & missile sites (topic)This text is about reported UFO and unidentified anomalous phenomena sightings and incidents at nuclear weapons sites, missile bases, and laboratories between 1947 and 2022. While researchers like Ro…
- Congress & law (topic)This topic overview covers congressional hearings, laws, and inquiries regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena from 1950 to 2022. During the Cold War, Congress primarily received closed briefings …
- Vallée meets Kit Green (1974)On February 11, 1974, UFO researcher Jacques Vallée and young CIA scientist Christopher "Kit" Green met for the first time after being introduced by physicist Hal Puthoff. During the meeting, which t…
- Skinwalker RanchSkinwalker Ranch is a 512-acre property in Utah that is reputed to be a site of paranormal and UFO activity. After a ranching family reported seeing strange lights, craft, and mutilated cattle there …
- Vallée on the disinformation campaign (1989)In September 1989, UFO researcher Jacques Vallée concluded from his journals that a large disinformation campaign existed regarding UFOs, though he could find no evidence of an active government blac…
- Robert BigelowRobert Thomas Bigelow is an American businessman from Las Vegas who made a fortune in real estate and the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. He founded Bigelow Aerospace to develop expandable spac…
- Project ZodiacProject Zodiac is the name used in UFO circles for an alleged secret government program to recover and reverse-engineer crashed UFOs and act as a cover-up group. The name first appeared in 1998 throu…
- John LearJohn Lear was an American aviator and UFO conspiracy theorist born in 1942 who set flying records and later promoted claims about government cover-ups of extraterrestrial life. He became a prominent …
- Bennewitz affairThe Bennewitz affair was a disinformation campaign conducted in the early 1980s around Albuquerque and Dulce, New Mexico, by U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations agents.
- Weitzel letter (1980)The Weitzel letter was an anonymous, fabricated document sent to a civilian UFO research organization in July 1980 regarding an alleged UFO sighting in New Mexico. Investigators later concluded that …
- DisinformationDisinformation is false information spread deliberately to mislead, specifically relating to government agents and intelligence operations hiding classified projects or feeding false UFO stories to r…
- Mario Woods incident at Ellsworth AFB (1977)In November 1977, former U.S. Air Force missile security policeman Mario Woods and his partner encountered a massive, glowing reddish-orange sphere near a Minuteman missile site close to Newell, Sout…
- Spread of the Bennewitz disinformationIn the 1980s, U.S. Air Force counterintelligence agents fed false information to Albuquerque businessman Paul Bennewitz to distract him from classified projects near Kirtland Air Force Base.
Questions & answers
What is Cattle mutilations?
Cattle mutilations refer to a phenomenon where livestock are discovered dead with missing body parts and seemingly precise wounds, with reports surging in the western and midwestern United States from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. While some ranchers and the public blamed cults, secret government projects, or UFOs, official investigations generally concluded that most cases were the result of natural deaths followed by scavengers and decomposition. Read: Cattle mutilations →
What else is Cattle mutilations called?
Cattle mutilations is also known as Animal mutilations, "mutes".
Who is Charles Fort?
Charles Fort was an American writer and researcher born in Albany, New York, in 1874 who lived until 1932. He spent decades collecting reports of anomalous phenomena ignored by science, publishing four books that catalogued strange occurrences and mocked scientific certainties. His work influenced ufology, science fiction, and the study of the paranormal, leading to the creation of the Fortean Society and related publications that continue his legacy. Read: Charles Fort →
Who is J. Allen Hynek?
J. Allen Hynek was an American astronomer and professor who served for over two decades as the U.S. Read: J. Allen Hynek →
Who is Gabe Valdez?
Gabe Valdez: Gabriel L. "Gabe" Valdez was a New Mexico State Police officer and investigator best remembered for leading the criminal investigation into unsolved livestock mutilations in northern New Mexico during the 1970s. Stationed in Dulce, he investigated dozens of cases involving surgical injuries, drugs, and UV-fluorescent markers on cattle. Read: Gabe Valdez →
What was Gabe Valdez and the Dulce cattle mutilations?
Gabe Valdez and the Dulce cattle mutilations: During the late 1970s in New Mexico, State Police officer Gabe Valdez investigated numerous cattle mutilation cases near the town of Dulce. Valdez believed the mutilations were a sophisticated human operation rather than the result of outer space activity. However, a federally funded investigation led by Kenneth Rommel concluded in 1980 that the animal deaths were caused by natural diseases, predators, and scavengers. Read: Gabe Valdez and the Dulce cattle mutilations →
What was Army helicopters and cattle mutilations (2001)?
Army helicopters and cattle mutilations (2001): This article is about a journal-recorded claim from February 2001 linking 1970s cattle mutilations to unidentified helicopters and a possible Army black programme. The claims stemmed from waves of unexplained livestock deaths and deputy sheriff accounts in various states during the 1970s. An official 1979–1980 New Mexico investigation concluded that most cases were due to natural death and predation, leaving the Army link unproven. Read: Army helicopters and cattle mutilations (2001) →
What is Air Force Office of Special Investigations?
Air Force Office of Special Investigations: The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is a United States federal law-enforcement agency and criminal investigation and counterintelligence service founded in 1948. Headquartered in Quantico, Virginia, it operates outside the normal military chain of command to investigate serious crimes, terrorism, espionage, and cyber threats affecting the Department of Defense. The agency is also known for handling early UFO sighting reports and conducting an early-1980s disinformation campaign involving false stories and forged documents fed to businessman Paul Bennewitz. Read: Air Force Office of Special Investigations →
What is The New York Times?
The New York Times is a major American daily newspaper best known in UFO history for its December 2017 article revealing the Pentagon's secret Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program and publishing Navy videos of unidentified objects. This coverage and subsequent reporting by the newspaper sparked intense public interest and speculation, though it also drew criticism from some experts for being thinly sourced and slanted. Read: The New York Times →
What is Mirage Men?
Mirage Men is a 2010 book and 2013 documentary film that argue U.S. military and intelligence insiders fabricated modern UFO folklore to deflect attention from classified projects and discredit investigators. Read: Mirage Men →
What is Unidentified flying object?
Unidentified flying object: An unidentified flying object, or UFO, is an unexplained phenomenon or object seen in the sky, with the modern craze originating in the United States in June 1947. While popular culture often equates UFOs with alien spacecraft, most investigations reveal them to be known objects, natural phenomena, hoaxes, or mirages, and no government investigation has ever concluded they are extraterrestrial. Read: Unidentified flying object →
What is Sandia National Laboratories?
Sandia National Laboratories is a U.S. research and development facility headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Read: Sandia National Laboratories →