Not One Drop of Blood

Oregon officials are investigating another mysterious mutilation of a cow near Ukiah in Umatilla County. Rancher Fee Stubblefield found the carcass on Sept. 12, reporting the skin around the cow’s mouth was sliced away, and it’s tongue, glands and sex organs had been cleanly removed. A piece of the cow’s ear was cut off and placed on its neck.

“It’s a very unusual cut,” Stubblefield told the Blue Mountain Eagle newspaper. “There was no blood.”

He found no footprints or tracks as evidence of someone traveling through the area. He called the Oregon State Police and the incidence was confirmed a mutilation kill.

“We got lucky because we found the cow within a couple days of when it had been killed, so it really yielded some good photos and hopefully some good evidence,” he said.

The September mutilation is similar to other incidences in Oregon over the past year. At least two others have occurred in Stubblefield’s area, with one of the mutilated cows found in a very remote location.

Officials say the mutilations are usually found with their tongues and genitals removed without signs of a struggle. During the summer of 2019, five bulls were found mutilated on the Silvies Valley Ranch in Harney County. Another mutilation was found near the border of Lake and Deschutes County in September.

 HARNEY COUNTY....
2019....Silvies Ranch in Harney County 145,000 cattle ranch, which also has become a recreational facility with camping...golfing and other activities. 
 
It was also where 5 bulls were found dead...in 2019...   There were no wounds. No signs of a struggle. And the bulls’ genitals and tongues had been carefully removed. And...Not One Drop of Blood...The Silvies Ranch story became a national story...previously when the media reported it, it was mostly in local or state media...

“How somebody put these bulls on the ground at what would be arguably a fairly close range — and to do it in a way that didn’t leave any signs, no trace evidence, no footprints, no struggle marks from the animal, no broken limbs — I have no idea,” said Colby Marshall, vice president of the Silvies Valley Ranch.

The mystery deepens because there’s no obvious reason someone would want those animal parts. They aren’t prime targets for black market sales, authorities said.  The five dead bulls were found on July 30 and 31, in a wooded area about 15 miles from U.S. 395, the nearest major road. Colby Marshall, vice president of the Silvies Valley Ranch, said at the time  

Marshall has heard from several other Oregon ranchers who reported similar killings on their property over the past few decades — including cows that had been found with their udders, vulvas and tongues removed.

One of these ranchers, Terry Anderson, found a dead cow on land he was renting near Pendleton in 1980. Its udder had been cleanly removed and Anderson could see no clear evidence of what had killed the animal.   All the cases had something else in Common...NOT ONE DROP OF BLOOD.