South Hills – Twin Falls County, Idaho – August 2019
While A Strange Thing was investigating the history of cattle mutilations for our ongoing discussion on this phenomena. A friend affiliated with the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s department told us of a new case filed by a local rancher. An investigation is currently ongoing concerning 3 animal deaths and their associated mutilations. The deaths took place within Twin Falls County, just north of the Nevada/Idaho border, +/- 35 miles straight South of Hansen, ID .
Three animals were discovered on the same day, 2 cows and one young bull. Each animal was in a different location roughly 1/2 mile or so apart.
The cattle were part of an open range co-op and each animal was owned by a different rancher.
The co-op hired a range rider to manage the cattle. This hired range rider found the dead animals and contacted their respective owners. The owners went to the location and then called the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s office who dispatched a range deputy to investigate.
One cow was found by a watering trough. It had NOT been mutilated and appeared to have been shot. There was a pool of blood on the ground underneath its head. We have been unable to contact this rancher.
The bull was found lying on a ridge close by. The rancher we talked to was unable to give much information on this animal other than it did not belong to his herd.
The 3rd cow, which had been mutilated, was found lying in a shallow creek bed within 1/2 mile or so from the other animals. There were no tracks or obvious evidence of predation around the dump site. The cow was missing utters, genitals and uterus (including probable bovine fetus). There was no blood.
The rancher and his wife talked with us via phone. They described the scene of the mutilation as “very strange”. The carcass had not been molested by scavengers and was very fresh. The wife told us she did not want to visit the scene because it reminded her too much of a similar cattle mutilation of one of their herd from one year prior. She remained in the truck but her husband and grandchildren went to look. When the grandchildren came back, one of them, with an astonished expression, said that it looked like someone had removed a “box” out of the cow’s rear end.
After talking with the mutilated cow owners, we contacted the Twin Falls County records department and requested copies of the investigation, both for these 3 cows and the mutilation that had occurred 1 year previous.
Within 24 hours we were told that both investigations are still “open” and that there were no plans to close them in the near future. It is safe to assume, given the sensational nature of these types of incidents, that the Sheriff’s department will keep this information as quiet as possible.
Currently, we are trying to arrange a meeting with the rider who discovered the carcasses. We are hopeful that he might be willing to share his story along with images of the 3 cattle that were killed.
More to come…