I got the call at 9 am on the 6th of August.
Gathered all my equipment and drove to this Custom Feedlot, 15 km North
East of my ranch. When I arrived the RCMP and Fish and Wildlife people
were already on the scene. They did not take any samples, only a few
pictures. That night was certainly the most severe lightning and thunder
storm we had all summer. I am 99% sure that it is the reason that only the
udder was taken. Generally, several parts are missing, like for instance,
one ear, an eye, tongue, rectum incised, sex organs, etc. but not
necessarily all of the above at one time, it varies a lot. The owners are
very sure this heifer was mutilated during the storm. The reason I and the
owners are sure about this, is because, during the storm the 1000 head of
cattle in the two lots adjacent to each other, with a fence between, (800
head of cows on one side and 200 on the other) became very nervous,
disturbed, ran around and bawled for quite sometime, indicating something
out of the ordinary happening. For the next 4 or 5 days the cow herd
on the other side would not approach the fence separating them. The 2 dogs
that are penned in every night also barked vigorously that night, this
never happened before.
The udder incision was very clean, looked like a laser type cut. A very,
very small amount of really watered down blood was found. I sent a sample
of this blood and soil from close to the heifer, as well as 5, 10, 15 and
20 feet North & South, and control sample 100ft both directions. With the
heavy rains both samples, as I mentioned before, were too wet and the
scientist were not able to do a proper test. My conclusion is that the
only sensible explanation for only taking the udder is that the storm
interrupted whoever was responsible for this act. I might add that this is
again proof that predators were not responsible, because these corrals
were built so that predators could not enter.
Report by Fernand Belzil.
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