Even as the Star Telegram article appeared, however, mutilations were discovered in ten more states, and were becoming increasingly weird; in Montana and New Mexico, for instance, wounds were found to have serrated edges. In Utah, a United States, Department of Agriculture veterinarian announced that an animal he had autopsied had been injected with bacteria or toxin; his superior told him if he didn't shut up, he would be fired.
In Oklahoma—where there had been one mute report in 1974—citizens and officials grew alarmed over the advent of a mute plague in early 1975. Governor David Boren ordered a full investigation under the aegis of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, which, after investigating 26 possibly mutilated animals and consulting various pathologists, theft investigators and radiation experts, issued a report dated March 3, 1975.
The report was a masterpiece of accusation. The animals had died of "natural causes." And who was chopping away at the carcasses?" It was the opinion of the task force members that the human involvement can be attributed to individuals attempting to get in on a fad or young people dissecting dead carcasses for biological or experimental purposes [emphasis added]." The report also stated: "We are of the opinion that the human involvement in mutilations is a fad generated by publicity and is only temporary." A fad! You know: Hula Hoops, phone-booth packing, the twist, riots against the war, and now sectectomy and teenagers with secret dried udder sacs hidden in their closets. The report's prophecy did, in fact, come true; the mutilations virtually ceased until the fall of 1975, when mutilations occurred in the northeast part of the state.
There had been mutilations on opposite sides of Colorado in November 1974. They spread in the spring of 1975, and by the fall, animals were being carved up all over the state. Fibert County, in particular, experienced a summer and fall of terror of the sort that talk show comedians ascribe to the streets of New York City. People were afraid to venture far abroad in country where helicopters hovered at night and anusiess cattle lay stiff and mutilated in the dawn.
Despite the organized efforts of law enforcement officials, the mutilations continued unchecked in Colorado until the first snows fell in the fall; then they came to a virtual hah. The investigators had gooten wiser over the year. They made intended to discover any involvement of blood drinkers of sen-crazed Satanists; if such weirdos were involved, the thinking went, it was only peripherally, and as a cover for the real villains in the shop-ups.