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Santa Fe man aims to solve mystery of cattle mutilations


Christopher O'Brien

Back in the Saddle Aginn
Staff member
[David's recent articles about the August (2014) Huerfano County, CO mutilation cases has won the Colorado Press Association's Best News Story/Series published in a Weekly Newspaper in Colorado for 2014]


David Perkins has been analyzing the strange phenomenon of cattle mutilations for decades.
Clyde Mueller/The New Mexican

Article HERE:

By Steve Terrell
The New Mexican

Cattle mutilation is no bull, says Santa Fe resident David Perkins. He’s been studying this strange phenomenon since the 1970s. He’s written magazine and newspaper articles about it — one recent story even won him a journalism award in Colorado — and co-authored a 1982 book called Altered Steaks. He also has spoken at who knows how many forums, including one organized by a U.S. senator.

But after all these decades, Perkins, 69, says he really doesn’t know who or what is responsible for the mutilations.

“I honestly think there’s something very significant behind it. I don’t know what,” he said, laughing, during a recent interview at a downtown Santa Fe coffee shop. “But I know that there’s something there. … It’s hard to dispute that there’s something unusual going on, just by the sheer number of cases, news reports, interviews, law enforcement and on and on. It’s clearly a cultural phenomenon. And that’s how I’ve approached it from the very beginning.”

Cattle mutilation, he said, is “almost a Rorschach test of the American psyche, you might say.”

Though there hasn’t been much talk about cattle mutilations in recent years, back in the mid-1970s there were constant news reports here and elsewhere about dead cows with body parts that witnesses said had been removed in what appeared to be mysterious ways.

“Ranchers reported finding their animals dead with sexual organs removed, blood drained, and missing some combination of ear, tongue, eye, udder or patch of skin,” Perkins wrote in the introduction of Stalking the Herd: Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery by Christopher O’Brien, published last year. “Rectums were frequently described as ‘cored out’ … the incisions were frequently described as being performed with ‘surgical precision.’ ”

Through the years, theories have abounded. Is this the work of UFOs? Strange cults? Some secret government project? Or some strange combination — a Satanic cult within the government?

Or is it just completely nuts? Is it something that only some kind of kook would pursue?

“I’m always battling the credibility issue, because it’s such a weird topic,” Perkins said in the interview. “It’s bizarre, scary, strange, kooky, whatever. But that hasn’t deterred me.”

Skeptics who mock tales of mutilations and all paranormal activity aren’t the only people who have questioned Perkins’ credibility. He’s also been dismissed by true believers of UFOs and those who embrace other mutilation theories — they say Perkins is too much of a skeptic.

“My conclusion after almost 40 years of devoting myself to this is that every theory has a fatal flaw,” he said. His insistence in pointing out those flaws gets him in trouble with those dedicated to advancing the theories. Perkins has had a pet theory of his own — that mutilations are connected with nuclear activity. This theory, too, has “fatal flaws” he said, but he still thinks “that may have some relevance.”

Perkins for decades has maintained homes in Santa Fe and in southern Colorado.

His obsession with cattle mutilations began in the mid-1970s after he moved with his wife at the time, Roberta Price, to Libre, a rural commune in Colorado’s Huerfano Valley. Perkins recently had graduated from Yale with a degree in American studies and political science. Price, now an intellectual property lawyer in Albuquerque, wrote a book about the commune called Huerfano: A Memoir of Life in the Counterculture (2004) and another about Libre and other communes called Across the Great Divide: A Photo Chronicle of the Counterculture (2010). Perkins took the cover photo for the latter.

A cattle mutilation occurred just down the road from his house at Libre, he said. It was the first mutilation scene Perkins had ever seen.

He described it in his introduction to Stalking the Herd. “The only evidence was a few drops of blood leading toward my home. I later learned from my local sheriff that since I was a relative newcomer to the area, I was briefly considered a suspect.”

A local newspaper editor told Perkins, “We think we know who did it. … those hippies up at Libre.” The editor didn’t know Perkins lived there.

“In those days, [Charles] Manson was still hanging in the air,” Perkins said, referring to the convicted mass murderer. “There was still that aspect of Mansonite hippie types, which was pervasive for awhile.”

At the time, Perkins was a musician (he later was in a Santa Fe group called The Dog Brothers) and a freelance writer; the latter profession he’s stuck with through the present. He said he started “a little file” on mutilations.

The file grew.

“One thing led to another, and I got more and more into it,” Perkins said. He made connections with local law enforcement officials investigating mutilations and interviewing ranchers whose cattle had been mutilated. “It just picked up steam. I thought, ‘This is a great story. And I’m going to solve it.’ ” Perkins laughed at himself before adding, “And I’m going to do it.”

In 1979, Perkins was the first speaker at a conference in Albuquerque about cattle mutilations organized by former astronaut and then U.S. Sen. Harrison Schmitt. “What other topic could possibly draw this motley crew into one room?” Perkins wrote in Stalking the Herd. “A moon-walking astronaut, FBI agents, state police, sheriffs and local police from around the country, Indian pueblo governors, tribal police chiefs, Los Alamos scientists, veterinarians, New Agers in robes, hippies, news media, spooky agent types, dusty ranchers in beat-up cowboy hats, independent researchers and, of course, ufologists of all stripes and colors.”

Shortly after Schmitt’s conference, then-Santa Fe District Attorney Eloy Martinez got a federal grant and hired retired FBI Agent Ken Rommel to investigate cattle mutilations all over New Mexico. He concluded “the vast majority of mutilations are caused by predators and scavengers.”

Rommel, who died in 2012, remained a skeptic. Years after his investigation, he told The New Mexican “I have a certain amount of sympathy for people whose lives are so dull and boring they have to get their kicks by fantasizing about the decomposition of dead animals.” (This was in 1994, a time when dozens of cattle mutilations had occurred in Northern New Mexico.)

Perkins, however, is skeptical of Rommel. He said he had a breakfast meeting with Rommel before he was officially appointed to head the investigation. Rommel had already made up his mind before he’d even started, Perkins said. He said Rommel told him at the breakfast that that cattle mutilations were “all baloney” and “creative journalism.”

Though Perkins considers Rommel’s investigation “lame,” he said, “I must say, in Rommel’s defense, the attitude of law enforcement in dealing with it at the time was that it was a public safety issue. People were shooting at helicopters in New Mexico and Colorado and Kansas and Nebraska.” (Some who live near mutilation scenes have reported hearing helicopters in the area.) “These vigilante groups were out running around at night, armed to the teeth. And that could have gone wrong easily.”

While there have been few if any news reports of cattle mutilations in New Mexico since the mid-’90s, up near Walsenburg, Colo., last summer there was a series of reported mutilations that got Perkins’ attention. He interviewed area ranchers, sheriff’s deputies and others and wrote a series of articles published by the weeklyHuerfano World Journal. The paper recently announced that Perkins’ series won an award from the Colorado Press Association for best feature series in a weekly paper.

Perkins and O’Brien, the author of Stalking the Herd, are beginning work on a follow-up, tentatively titled “MuteSpeak: Stalking the Stalkers,” which will contain what Perkins says will be a deep analysis of the major theories about who or what is behind the mutilations.

“What Chris and I have going for us is a healthy skepticism and a sense of humor,” Perkins said.

Contact Steve Terrell at [email protected]. Read his political blog atwww.santafenewmexican.com/news/blogs/politics.
 
If ya think about it Chris.

Cattle just arnt very lucky are they.

It is interesting tho, there is something behind it, they do not mutilate themselves.
 
The carving job at Skinwalker Ranch was done by the same guy that conned Chris into believing his BS. IMO.

There is so much violent insanity within the minds of some male humans that these crimes are the magic tricks they stalk, prey, and play on the believer herds. In some respects they are the real mutilator ET's in human form. It's a Heaven's Gate capable of anything!

Of course, there is some long-term sampling going on that was/is blackops, possible misdirection too, but I think only Gabe Valdez knew where that led to. Gabe's secrets are NOT LOST yet, because his son Greg never signed an NDA with Bigelow. He KNOWS what his father learned in most respects, AND he has all the paperwork and police work "evidence" his father collected over decades! It is The Gold Mine just waiting for its Military UFO & Mutilation riches to be shared.

Plenty of copycats join these media melees too. Insane believers will create and support the faith. Someone at Skinwalker proves it. There is big money in UFO media hype and tourism too!

Throw-in land feuds, angry neighbors, and fraud artists too.

Of course, the main culprits are just some form of strange predation and death, but from the POV of untrained witnesses it's blaming ET after the media hype of LMH.
 
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So all cattle mutilation are fake?
Christopher O'Brien, post: 214063, Quote: Aliens don't inject cows w/ barbiturates, ketamine, nicotine, mescaline, anti-coagulates, potasium cyanide or shoot livestock w/ conventional firearms or utilize conventional helicopters. There are way too many cases that appear to have mundane elements present that suggest more down-to-Earth explanations for a vast majority of "real" cases. (Chris Posted today 2015 End Quote)

Which one(s), if any, were ET-UFO's Chris? ;)
 
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Ok so say if I fed cows the night before and came back the next morning and they were sliced up. And say I and my dad both were o say tracker trained by my na grand father not to mention a army ranger was unable to find tracks. In an area that takes a major 4x4 aka our 73 heavy 3/4 ton to get to and it had snowed so say tracks would be very easy to follow even for a novice? And say being a yote hunter I took part of the cow to lure one in and being a caller got one to come in the and the second the yote got near the shank I had cut off said cow it took off like it was on fire? Bear in mind no one reported any off this for fear off being made out as nuts the farmer was payed a visit by not friendly folks in weird clothing? So who would u say did this?
 
Bear in mind no one reported any off this for fear off being made out as nuts the farmer was payed a visit by not friendly folks in weird clothing? So who would u say did this?
You will have to spend more time to express yourself more clearly in detail for me to at least fully understand this example of mutilation...

You said the farmer was visited by not friendly folks...

It needs a lot more details provided to get an idea where that is leading... but that would certainly be the center of my attention based on your very limited scenario... "visit by not friendly folks in weird clothing"
 
MIB the cows utters were gone eyes gone cheeks gone genitals cored out in the dead of winter. Were we found them is very hard to get to. The cows were the same ones seen the night before I'd from ear marks. We tried to track what had done this none were found no blood in the snow? This part I don't get no blood no skid no tire track save our truck for miles only way in is across a creek or by air one gate none of the fence cut and we walk the whole fence line. Not being our cows dad was going to find out who and how the farmer being very ill now dead this taking place in 83 84 we found nothing.
 
MIB = Men in Black??? Correct or ? IF yes, then please tell us as much detail as you can about their visit. It is critically important to know everything about that!
 
And yes if any one had tolled me this I call the nut farm for pick up! To this day I fill weird about the whole incident! But it is what happened
 
How old were you at the time? Your dad was with you too? He is still alive too? As much detail about the MIB is critically important.

MIB... Ages? How many? Dress/Appearance descriptions? What said -details! Questions? When? Vehicle used? Visit how soon after mutes? Any further contacts or just once?

Anything else strange happen at the time or since then by you, your dad, farmer, or in that area nearby?
 
I did not see mib they visited the farmer not me and dad will not talk about this after the visit he toll me not to say anything I was15 I thing he was afraid for the old man
 
I did not see mib they visited the farmer not me and dad will not talk about this after the visit he toll me not to say anything I was15 I thing he was afraid for the old man
When you have a chance, it would be worth it to learn what your dad can recall now. I think it would be safe to share anonymously here what else he could add.

I can tell you for certain there was at least one other unusual kill in Kansas near that time frame that is written about somewhere that I can't recall now where I read about it. It was thought a military "exotic" weapon was being tested that killed the cow(s) by a military contractor. Some evidence was learned to support this kind of experiment, but I can't recall any details. I'm sure that account could still be found, and Chris will know about it too.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Hope you might find out more from your dad too.
 
Ya I herd about other cows turning up the year before I saw a UFO whit a friend but that was not abnormal around here at that time I turned a report in school on ufos got an f as it was to be a fact based report grade got changed after teacher had one buzz her. So weird stuf was not so unusual
 
I can try dad is military and if they said shut up he will not talk not even if they had a gun to my head.
Thanks!

Were any military contractors located in the area? Military bases or test areas?

In the Mirage Men movie and elsewhere in writing it was said the military had learned how to disguise helicopters to look like UFO's as a cover to do some of these mutilations near Dulce, NM. You can start with that movie available online & download or stream from Amazon. Listen to Paracast interviews given by Gabe Valdez and Greg Valdez too! Get Gabe's book for further study if interested.
 
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