As a general rule, the more one studies a paranormal phenomenon, the less mysterious and paranormal it seems. This is the case with cattle mutilations. It was so easy to imagine aliens were abducting cows and other livestock for bizarre experimentation, then leaving the mangled remains behind to frighten and titillate us humans. Then some law enforcement agency ran a series of experiments and proved that purely natural causes and the actions of decomposition, scavengers, and insects could provide the results that were previously attributed to aliens. (I don’t remember the particulars of this, just watching it on television back in the day.) It was both comforting and a little disappointing. Some cases remain anomalous and fall outside the range of that experiment, but overall the whole cattle mutilation thing lost much of its aura after that.
Still, there are those anomalies. When, then, did the phenomena begin? It was the 60s, right? Yep. September 9th, 1967. The first documented case of livestock mutilation associated with UFOs, that of Snippy the horse. One expert claimed that the horse had been sliced and diced by high tech equipment, and that there was radiation surrounding the carcass, and strange burn patterns on the ground. Another expert examined the carcass and concluded that the horse had gone lame and been put down, presumably by a human, and that the resulting postmortem mutilation was the work of wolves, coyotes, buzzards and bugs. (Wolves in particular are often erroneously blamed for livestock predation.) Which should have been the end of it. Only there were lots of reports of strange lights in the sky before and after Snippy’s unfortunate demise. Connected, or coincidence?
