This article was published in the daily newspaper The Winnipeg Sun, Winnipeg, Canada, on April 29, 2004.
By Natalie Pona
Staff Reporter
An Arborg cattle farmer made a horrific discovery Monday when he found the partially skinned carcass of one of his animals that was missing its tongue and apparently drained of its blood. "The whole thing has turned out to be more sinister than I thought," said Yvonne, a neighbour, who examined the mutilated animal. She asked not to have her last name used to protect her family.
"What sort of weirdos have we got travelling in our neighbourhood?"
Gordon, who would only allow The Sun to print his first name, said he discovered the carcass on his farm Monday afternoon.
"I don't really want to speculate on what happened. I know what I saw," he said, adding he is still shaken up by the find.
Arborg is 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
The mutilation happened Saturday or Sunday night, Gordon said. No one heard anything.
He's heard of several cow mutilations in the area over the past few years, Gordon said.
He called the RCMP, reporting that the animal had been attacked by a predator. He has since changed his mind about the cause.
"It was definitely a sharp object used," he said.
Arborg RCMP Cpl. Glenn Syme said he has never investigated an instance of cattle mutilation. The RCMP did take a call this week about a cow being attacked by a predator, likely from Gordon.
The animal was found with an incision under its chin. The skin had been pulled from the face, exposing the teeth.
"It's not the gore, we've seen that before, it's the evil behind it," Yvonne said.
The tip of the animal's tongue, cut from its root, was placed in the mouth, she said.
"There's not a drop of blood in that animal. The only way you can drain an animal of blood is (to cut into it) with the heart still pumping," Yvonne said.
The cuts were very precise, as if made by a surgeon, she said.
"You don't know who you're dealing with ... the average wild and woolly neighbourhood brat wouldn't be capable of doing it," she said.
Gordon and Yvonne called Fern Belzil, an Alberta-based investigator of unexplained deaths who has been studying cow mutilations for eight years, for help.
Belzil has studied 100 cases, two-thirds of which remain unexplained.
"I'm not saying it's aliens ... a lot points towards aliens but there is no proof," he said.
Belzil said he has never encountered any evidence pointing to who or what is killing cows.
"It's a real mystery," he said.
