Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Argentina: Cattle Mutilations on the Rise Again

ARGENTINA: Cattle Mutilations on the Rise Again
** Sudden deaths concern local residents ***

A cattleman from Maciá showed his concern when he found one of his cattle "mutilated, with perfect incisions." As reported by Canal Once, this event is disquieting because similar cases have been reported in the area.

Alfredo Crettaz, a cattleman from the town of Maciá in the department of Rosario del Tala, Entre Rios, was "visibly concerned' by the strange appearance of a seven or eight month animal found dead. "The perfect cut on the jaw is striking," he says, alarmed, and describes that "the animal has its entire nape of the neck peeled off, the tail completely peeled," he stressed in the report offered by Canal Once in Paraná during the Semanario Entererriano de Noticias broadcast.

Crettaz suggested that "it wasn't possible that the animal was sick, "because he fell in this place and what is strange is that other creatures haven't come to feed off of it."

Cretaz found the animal during the first days of the week and according to him, "this is the first time that this happens in this field." The countryman made this clarification because similar cases have been occurring in the region and cases with similar characteristics continue to repeat over and over. In mid-May of this year, a Hereford cow was found in Macià by Moises Enrique, its
owner. In early June 2007, Felipe Weber, another local rancher, found a dead cow with the typical characteristics of mutilations: extirpation of genitalia, jaw muscles, eyes, tongue and udders. Weber had also experienced a similar occurrence a year earlier.

"Those who have seen this do not know what it could be," said Crettaz, looking at the animal and unable to dismiss his amazement in the interview with the Semanario Entreterriano de Noticias. He said that a local vet told him, after seeing similar cases, that it could be "an instance of sudden death". Faced with this, Crettaz did not doubt that it could've been a case of sudden death because "the animal fell dead and was stayed there." He added, however, that "the animal looked somewhat flayed - that's what doesn't make any sense."

As a farmer, he dismissed the possibility that "a red-muzzled mouse" could've been the cause of the death.

The strange factor in mutilations are the nature of the injuries: The cows had perfect, cauterized incisions on their heads and bodies, their tongues and saliva glands had been removed, and their mammary glands, rectums and large intestines were missing.

(Translation (c) 2007 S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)