The following article has been published in the newspaper El Diario de la Republica, Argentina, on July 9, 2002.
SAN LUIS. Just when the mystery of the cattle mutilations appears to have been dispelled by a scientific explanation, a five month old bovine was found dead in San Francisco del Monte de Oro, showing the same incisions as the others which were a source of intrigue throughout the country.
The discovery was made on Friday night at a ranch known as "El Quebrachito", 8 km west of the entrance to the community. According to Ruben Diaz, a journalist with San Francisco Television, the person who saw the animal first is a man known as "El Negro" Vazquez. The animal and the field belong to Alberto Martin, former superintendent and a respected businessman in the community.
According to Diaz, the bovine is missing several internal organs and its flesh had a strange look. "It's as though a machine had gone into its mouth and sucked out everything inside."
The external examination showed that the bovine was missing its ears, tongue, intestines and one eye. Its anus appears to have been extracted and the entire area presents a wound similar to ones made by burns. "Part of the tail has similar lesions," noted the journalist.
People who know the area are startled by the fact that dogs did not bark out a warning, nor made any sound whatsoever. They are further certain that the event was discovered shortly after it took place. According to Diaz, on Friday afternoon, the field owners' children were cutting down a tree not far from where the dead cow was found. In an interview granted to Diaz's TV show, Martin stated that he had never before seen anything similar.
Translation © 2002, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Alicia Rossi.
