Possible Colorado Cattle Mutilation February 2024.
I’d like to thank Braden Brummit for contacting me and sending me information about this animal death. I follow-up on any email I get which pertains to a possible mutilation, because so many animals die yearly to unknown causes. I like to know about as many deaths as I can because there are some patterns I’m seeing now, so for every death I learn about, I’m able to understand a little bit more about this phenomenon. Also, if an animal is found dead under unusual circumstances in an area where other mutilations have occurred, I usually contact the ranchers I’ve worked with and give them a heads up.
Fact: On the average three or more mutilations may occur within the same period of time sometimes in the same general area, and sometimes in other states within that time frame. The ones that occur in other states within a week of each other, generally show a common pattern.
Case in point, last year I investigated a mutilation case in Oregon, it occurred one week before the multiple cases occurred in Texas.
Not every dead cow that appears to have died mysteriously can be classified as a Cattle Mutilation. A lot of cattle die from natural causes and seen from the untrained eye; some may think the death was mysterious. There are certain commonalities I look at like when investigating what I think is a mutilation case, and that’s, location, nearby resources, damage to the animal and especially the rancher’s opinion. Ranchers know when one of their animals have died mysteriously because they’ve seen animal deaths in on their property due to natural causes.
This particular animal could have died from natural causes, and at this time I’m unable to locate its owner to verify the death. I decided to release information about this “case”, because if it is or if it isn’t, I’d still like to stress that there are 100’s of animals every year that die from unknown causes pertaining to mutilations. By the time investigators hear about a possible mutilation, the animal is usually too late in the decomposing period to properly investigate it. The optimal time to investigate a mutilation is within 24 hours of death.
The reason for this time period pertains to scavengers like, birds, coyotes, and flies. Fly maggots could start consumming an animal carcass pretty quickly especially if it’s warm. Depending on the climate, fly eggs can hatch into maggots during a warm climate period within 8 to 20 hours after they lay their eggs while munching on a carcass. The hatching can go into 48 hours if the climate is cooler. Full larva development takes around 8-10 days, and the life expectancy of the Fly from egg to adult is about, 2.5 to 3 weeks.
Coyotes, even bears, will rip, shred, and take pieces of the carcass for food, so not only does valuable evidence disappear, the crime scene, (where the animal had died) has been salted, or contaminated.
Just because an investigator may not be able to get to a mutilation case within a 24-hour period doesn’t necessarily mean they shouldn’t investigate it. There are so many other things that can be learned from a mutilation case, like:
– Interviewing the rancher, learning if there is a history of strange animal deaths in the area.
– If strange lights are/were seen in the area.
– If UFO type crafts were seen in the area.
– If un-marked helicopters were seen in the area.
– If high levels of EMF (electromagnetic fields) can be measured on or near the animal.
– If a circular ground depression, like a crop circle, can be seen where the animal was found lying.
– If there was ground movement around the animal.
– If higher levels of radiation were measured.
– If there are water sources nearby.
– So many other things to investigate even if an investigator misses the 24-hour window.
This particular animal death definitely shows that birds frequented the carcass, so there was some accumulated time between the death and the time the witness found the animal. The white marks seen on the picture are usually bird droppings. It also looks like the eyeball was “pecked” out by birds. If an eye is taken during a mute encounter, the eye socket appears more cored out, although it looks like there is some coring around this animal’s eye.
Also, who knows what damage may have been on the other side of the animal, I always turn the carcasses over to see the other side just in case something unusual looking exists.
General location where the animal was found.
Email from Braden Brummit (who found the carcass)
Hello Chuck, I found the Calf above Escalante Canyon outside of Delta CO. It was located at the top of Escalante Rim Road a 4×4 trail. I saw it laying in the clearing right on top. It was outside of the open range fencing. There are two roads that fork from the clearing with cattle guards over both roads. One road was labeled 61 from the forest service. It was 1:30pm on Sunday February 18, 2024.
Note: The average temperature for Delta Colorado the first two weeks of February 2024 was from the low, 20 degrees to high 45 degrees. Flys usually can’t survive during the wintertime in areas like this. Most die after the temperature hits below freezing.
Maggots usually won’t be the cause of unusual carcass damage during the cold winter season.
The red X was my marker for the general location of the two roads that forked out, the yellow circle is where the animal was found.
Braden Brummit states:
There were no tracks human or otherwise next to the calf. I saw one set of Razor Tracks (Editor note, RZR 4wd Side by Side vehicle) where they just drove past it, but they didn’t get out of the vehicle.
We did try to report it to Delta County Sheriff’s Office. Only talked to someone via phone. He didn’t give a name. The person we talked to was actually very rude, he refused to come out and see the pictures. He said he was an expert, and it was coyotes. I think I disagree.
Note: This happens to me all the time, some Sheriff’s Departments have a tendency to automatically assume these kinds of deaths are natural. Unfortunately, if they don’t take the time to see the animals that have died in their district, then they have nothing to use as a comparison. Like an animal that died of natural causes compared to one that died of un-natural causes. If an animal has died of un-natural causes, it could be an animal cruelty case. In the state of Colorado if someone is convicted of multiple animal cruelty charges, they could be charged a felon.
Braden Brummit states:
There was no smell, no blood, the tounge and ears were gone. The right eye missing with the anus bored out. It was laying on it’s left side. The sex organs and all other organs removed. With my medical background I would say a laser or sergical cut. It was basically hallowed out. It had a white substance on it as you can see. I thought maybe bird poop, not sure. No signs that I could see that made you think predator or scavenger. My opinion was wondering on your thoughts.
What I like about this witness Braden is, he has a medical background which makes him a little more of a reliable witness with these types of cases. One “RED FLAG” is the ears were missing. I’ve seen a few animals that had died of natural causes and their ears were still there. I’ve had a few mute cases where the ears were taken.
Rancher Miller case, ears were missing.
Rancher Miller from the southern Colorado area has had a history of mutilations on his property, and I’ve investigated over a dozen cases there.
A lot of mutilations I’ve investigated the tongue was missing too! Not being able to personally see this case in the early stages, scavengers could have taken the part of the tongue that would have been hanging out of the mouth. Usually, the tongue is hanging out if it’s not taken during a mutilation. If an investigator gets to the carcass with the 32-hour period, they can open the jaw to see if the tongue is missing. In actual mute cases, the tongue appears to be surgically cut off deep within the throat, not at the jaw entrance.
Some of rancher Sanchez animals near the town of San Luis, Colorado, had missing tongues. Local NBC KOAA reporter, Andy Koen was with me for this investigation pictured above. Andy was holding my knife prying open the dead calf’s mouth so we could see if the tongue was taken. And, it had been.
Hard to say what exactly happened with the animal Braden found, the cuts do look unusual but can’t be labeled as an actual mute due to time of death and time the carcass was found. It could have been a week or so based on the decomposition, and it’s really difficult looking at pictures and not the actual animal.
The pictures have the earmarks of a mutilation with a cored-out anal area although coyotes are known to start eating on that area first because it’s soft tissue. Usually what I’ve seen in the past with scavenger damage to this area is more tearing and ripping is seen, but I still can’t be positive once again due to the amount of time between death and when the witness found the animal.
As stated earlier, you can cancel out Maggots, they generally can’t survive freezing temperatures in this area, so how did the animal die and where did unusual cuts come from?
There’s always the human factor, the animal could have been hit by a 4×4 vehicle and it wasn’t reported due to the owner of the vehicle possibly being fined. This area is a free grazing area and ranch animals are protected under Colorado law. But that could be one explanation for the death, but not the unusual cuts. The anal damage could have been from coyotes, maybe there was some ripping and tearing, but there should have been blood stain on the hide. The witness didn’t see any, still we can’t factor out hungry coyotes during the winter season.
But what about the gaping hole where an udder used to be?
Calving season in Colorado is more in the spring, but this may be too early in the season to have a mother out there nursing a calf. A few of my mute cases, the milk sack had been cored away from the animal. So, for whatever reason the udder is important.
This picture is an animal from one of my previous cases. You can clearly see the udder had been surgically removed.
What about the cow that Braden found? What caused that damage in the udder area? A milk cow can still give milk up to 10 months after giving birth, so this animal could still be giving milk if it gave birth spring of 2023.
The missing organs could have been taken if the cow was truly mutilated, but not always. Sometimes organs or part of the digestive system have been taken, but for this animal, it’s all an unknown. If the hole was created due to being a true mutilation, then coyotes could be able to get into that cavity and pull out whatever they want after the mutilation. So, it’s hard to say.
I’d like to thank Braden Brummit for taking the time to send me information about this animal’s death, even though we can’t confirm if it was an actual mutilation. It’s still nice to stay informed about any animal death just in case. Even though I may not have been able to confirm it, if I find out other cattle deaths may have occurred during this time frame anywhere in or outside Colorado, then there may be some validity to this case. Either way, it’s better to be informed than not informed.
Chuck Zukowski
Category: The Z-Files
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