For local cattle rancher Don Farquharson it’s not so strange to lose the occasional Charolais cow to an encounter with a predatory wild animal, sickness or old age — it comes with the territory.
But to come across an animal that appears to have been a victim of mutilation has left the lifetime rancher with a lot of unanswered questions.
“I’ve never seen or encountered anything like this,” said Farquharson, who leases the grazing pasture from his sister Keren Farquharson (who found the cow, along with her husband, Luis Delgado, on the afternoon of June 6).
Don provided photographic evidence of the believed mutilation of his cow (who appeared to be in perfect health only days before) that he and his family discovered to the Eagle.
The pictures, which are too graphic to print, reveal that the cow’s entire udder bag was somehow removed; along with it, the rest of her reproductive organs and one of her eyes was also missing.
Keren said that the whole appearance of the cow was strange. Her nearly two-month-old calf was not yet crying for his mother, whose body was only beginning to bloat; this indicated that whatever had happened to this cow was likely from the night before.
The strangest observation made by Keren and Don (who was unable to attend the scene until several hours later) was that there was no evidence of any kind of struggle; no evidence of an entry or exit wound (bullet or dart); there were no blood smears or droplets on her carcass; and to date — no birds or other animals have fed on the decomposing body.
The family, while at first hesitant to contact local media, decided that promoting awareness could at least make more area ranchers diligent about checking their cattle, keeping an eye out for suspicious activities in grazing pastures and taking a collaborative rural neighbourhood watch approach.
“If all these cases were reported, I believe people would be more vigilant in observation. Also, with it being reported in the news, there is a record of these incidents,” said Keren, who would like to see some type of online reporting or tracking site for cases like these.
“If it is possible that all the cases are not being reported, it may be because farmers and ranchers are too busy with other field work and tasks to deal further with the incident. It is a crime, but without recourse or compensation or any support, other things take precedence.”
It is not uncommon for cattle ranchers to only check on cattle weekly, rather than daily, once they are put out to graze during the summer months.
Lifelong area cattle ranchers Joanne and John Fenton experienced a similar incident around eight years ago.
The Fentons returned home one summer in the late afternoon to their property located between Bottrel and Water Valley after being gone all day.
It did not take John long to come upon his 2,000-pound Black Angus bull. The animal was found dead in a corral, only around 100 meters from their house.
“I have no idea how he was killed,” said John, who observed only the bull’s reproductive organs had been selectively taken; parts of these organs had been skinned and were carefully left behind.
Like the June 6 incident on the Farquharsons’ land, there was no evidence of a struggle, of a bullet or a dart.
John also never observed any birds or wildlife attempting to feed on the bull, whose carcass was removed not long afterwards.
The Fentons both recalled the incident as strange and very suspicious.
According to Didsbury RCMP, the Farquharson report was not filed as suspicious activity and that they believed this was not a case of mutilation and that the cow had died of natural causes — possibly from ingesting a poisonous plant.
Theories circulating around cow mutilation are varied — from occult to deranged human behaviour to extraterrestrial.
Ed Turco is an investigator with the inspections and investigations branch for the Department of Agriculture and Forestry for Alberta. Turco said that there was an outpouring of incidents reported as suspected cow mutilations around 20 to 30 years ago across the province.
At that time, there were resources available for people to send samples in to be tested to determine cause of death of the animal.
The funding for this type of testing has long been cut, as Turco said, these cases have been summed up as ‘predatory attacks’. He maintains the human eye cannot determine a cut or incision from a tear until it’s under a microscope.
He said scientific testing concluded that most of these reported incidents were grouped as predatory attacks, as the cuts were largely determined to actually be tears made by an animal that only goes for ‘soft tissue’; these ‘soft tissue attacks’ include reproductive organs, eyes and tongues.
Turco, who did not observe photos of the Farquharson incident, could not explain why Keren and Don had not seen any birds or wildlife feeding on the cow since its strange death.
Following the loss of a $3,500 cow and the anticipated weight loss of her orphaned calf for a fall sale (from losing its milk source) is a considerable financial loss for Don.
To further his loss by risking transport of a bloated animal to a vet clinic (with hopes that the carcass would not explode on the journey) or to pay for an expensive house call and to send samples for testing is not an option. It would only further his cost and would fail to bring his cow back.
Fish and Wildlife does respond to calls of wildlife attacks on animals. Brendan Cox, spokesperson with the department, said he was not aware of any cases related to suspected cow mutilation (suspicious activity would be handled by RCMP) but that there is a compensation program — the Wildlife Predatory Compensation Program — for injured/killed livestock resulting from a predatory wildlife attack.
Ken Dean, the SPCA’s director of law enforcement, said a call such as this would have been redirected to RCMP – as the SPCA handles cases of animal abuse and neglect.
The Alberta Farm Animal Care operates under the mandate to ‘ensure all farm animals in Alberta are respected, well cared for and experience a high state welfare’. They are not overly familiar with cases of suspected cow mutilation and would also field these calls to RCMP.
Some highlighted reported incidences of cow mutilation in the prairies include a Paradise Hill, Alta., incident reported in 2005 by the Lloydminster Meridian Booster; a series of suspected mutilations in St. Paul in 1995; and an incident reported by CBC News of a suspected mutilation north of Saskatoon, Sask.
