Six cattle died mysteriously in Texas, missing their tongues, missing skin around one side of their mouths and no blood shed, authorities said this week.
The cause of death for all six animals is unknown, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Wednesday. As of Friday, there had been no updates on the case, a dispatcher said.
The cattle were found along the Texas state highway in three counties — Madison, Brazos and Robertson — and each animal was part of a different herd and on a different pasture, the sheriff’s office said.
Five of the animals were adults, the sheriff’s office said. One was a year.
It was not immediately clear when they died. The sex of the animals was not revealed.
In two cases, the animals’ genitalia and anuses were removed with a circular cut that the sheriff’s office said was made with «the same precision as the cuts observed around the jaw lines of each cow.»
Investigators with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office discovered five of the deaths after ranchers alerted authorities to a dead 6-year-old longhorn cow, the statement said.
The grass around the bodies of the six animals was intact, with no signs of a struggle and no footprints or tire tracks, the sheriff’s office said.
«Rattlemen also reported that no predators or birds would rummage through the cow’s remains, leaving her untouched for several weeks,» the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office noted that similar incidents have been reported across the United States and that it was coordinating with other law enforcement agencies.
In 2019, Oregon authorities found five dead bulls with their sexual organs and tongues removed, The Associated Press reported.
The deaths sparked theories including everything from carrion insects to spaceships to cult murders, according to AP. It was not clear if the deaths were resolved.
An FBI agent who investigated a previous wave of mysterious cattle deaths on tribal land told The Associated Press there was no indication anything other than common predators were behind the deaths.