PRINEVILLE, Ore. — Cattle in Oregon are again showing up dead under strange circumstances.
Over the past three months, seven animals have been found mutilated on ranch land in central Oregon’s Crook County, the Northwest News Network reported Tuesday. In most cases, the dead animal’s sex organs, tongue or eyes are cut away cleanly and there is no blood.
The cases call to mind similar discoveries of five mutilated bulls in 2019 in Harney County, where five bulls were found dead in a 2-mile radius with their sex organs and tongues removed. There have also been cases in recent years in Wasco, Umatilla, Wheeler and Lake counties in recent years. There have also been cases reported in Arizona.
Similar cases of mutilated livestock and even elk and deer have surfaced periodically across the country and, in the 1970s, a rash of livestock mutilations across the U.S. West and Midwest struck fear in rural areas.
Thousands of cattle and other livestock ranging from Minnesota to New Mexico were found dead with their reproductive organs and sometimes part of their faces removed.