According to those who believe that aliens from other planets have landed on earth and have been performing reproductive surgery on humans they've abducted, aliens are responsible for the deaths and mutilations of thousands of cattle, horses, cats and other animals around the globe. The evidence for aliens doing the killing and mutilating seems to be little more than the lack of evidence that aliens aren't responsible (argument from ignorance) and the refusal of believers to accept the fact that earthly beings (human and other predators) are most likely responsible. ("We can't explain it so it must be aliens.")
It is not surprising that cattle mutilations are often associated with UFO sightings. It is surprising that the mutilations are often associated with helicopter sightings, which has suggested to some that our military forces are testing new weapons on the livestock of unsuspecting citizen ranchers. It shouldn't surprise anyone to find that the military thinks it is ok to experiment on cattle surreptitiously, since they've done it on people in the past. A more likely story, according to UFOlogists, is that the helicopters are UFO's disguised to appear as terrestrial craft. Indeed. Some even think that the aliens have been in collusion with the Air Force for the past 30 years and that the animal mutilations are being performed by aliens with the full knowledge of our military. (We allow it because of some sort of treaty we signed with the aliens.)
Of course, inquiring minds want to know why beings with the intelligence and power to travel billions of miles to our planet would spend their time mutilating cows. The answer is simple: they need cow blood and glands for food. A more serious, more scientific answer to the peculiar behavior of the space voyagers is given by those who say that the aliens are harvesting enzymes and are working on a genetic engineering project which will blend the Gray race (the aliens) with a Nordic race (of course!) so they can interface with humans better. The aliens are also altering cow DNA to create some sort of artificial life form. (This may explain Newt Gingrich.)
An Alien Harvest (1989) by Linda Moulton Howe details
much of the story, including photographs of wounds described as
weird, bizarre, suspicious and inexplicable. She claims that her
photos reveal
for the first time that tissue gathered from
mutilator cuts in Arkansas on March 11, 1989, revealed the
following characteristics under microscopic examination: 1) The
line is pinpoint thin; 2) The line was subjected to high heat,
probably 300 degrees Fahrenheit or above, leaving a hard and
darkened edge; 3) The cuts were made rapidly, probably in two
minutes or less, because there is no inflammatory cell
destruction which typically begins in a few minutes after any
trauma to tissue (See contrasting
photomicrographs).
The photographs are "scientific proof" of unnatural happenings,
similar to the photos of alpha brain states to prove the
scientific nature of transcendental
meditation and the Kirlian
photos of mutilated leaves to prove the occult nature of auras.
There is no point in suggesting that animal or human predators
are probably responsible for the cattle killings since that
explanation has already been ruled out by our experts. The wounds
are too weird, the lack of blood too bizarre, for any natural
explanation.
To the rational mind, aliens coming all this way to get cow blood and glands seems preposterous. Anyway, if the aliens had any decency about them they'd just go to McDonalds for their blood and glands like normal people do.
See related entries for alien abductions, crop circles, flying saucers, science fiction and UFOs.
suggested reading
Perkins, David. Altered Steaks : a Colloquium on the Cattle Mutilation Question, participants: David Perkins (aka "Izzy Zane"), Lewis MacAdams, Tom Clark, (Santa Barbara, Calif. : Am Here Books/Immediate Editions, 1982).
Stewart,? "Cattle Mutilations," Skeptical Inquirer, Spring/Summer 1977 (vol 1 no. 2).