6 Cattle in Texas Found Dead With All Their Tongues Missing
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office in Texas is “actively coordinating with other agencies to find answers” after ranchers found six cows dead in suspicious circumstances, including with all their tongues removed.
In a statement on April 19, the office said it found the six cows in separate “locations, pastures, and herds,” but all “in the same condition.”
The cows were described as lying on their side. The hide around their mouths had been removed on the side facing upward, via a “straight, clean cut, with apparent precision.” The meat under the removed side was not touched.
Their tongues were also “completely removed.”
There was no blood spill surrounding any of the cows.
On two of the cows, “a circular cut was made removing the anus and the external genitalia,” the statement said. “This circular cut was made with the same precision as the cuts noted around the jaw lines of each cow.”
There were no signs of struggle or disturbance found in the grass surrounding the carcasses of the cows. There were no noticeable tracks, including tire tracks, around the area.
The cause of death of all the cows remains undetermined.
No predators or birds would scavenge the remains of the cows for several weeks after their death, so they were left to decay untouched during that time.
The cattle were found along Texas State Highway OSR. Investigators with the sheriff’s office were first alerted by ranchers to one of the deaths—a 6-year-old longhorn-cross cow—before finding out about the deaths of the other five cows. They included four adult cows and one yearling, found along the area of OSR running into Brazos County as well as Robertson County.
“Multiple similar incidents have been reported across the United States,” the sheriff’s office noted.
Back in 2019, five bulls were found dead in Oregon over the course of several days. All of their sex organs and tongues had been removed. All the blood was also gone from their bodies. According to a report from The Associated Press, similar to the six cattle, there were no signs of struggle, nor any tracks around the carcasses.
