In en , a number of ranchers, many of whom lived on the eastern plains of New Mexico, reported finding their cattle mysteriously dead and mutilated. By the fall, the problem was considered serious enough that the New Mexico Livestock Board requested assistance from Los Alamos scientific Laboratory (LASL) to help determine the cause of death of these animals. According to an article published in the Albuquerque Journal, "in most cases... inspectors have found no blood and no tracks at the scene to indicate the cause of death." The article does point out, though, that most of the carcasses were not fresh enough "where we [livestock inspectors] could determine anything about them" (Cohea 1975).
Accompanying some of the reported mutilations were sightings of unidentified aircraft, particularly helicopters.
We [Livestock Board] had reports that someone said they saw a helicopter the day before the mutilated bull was found near Abiquiu, and in the areas of Clayton, Raton, and Tucumcari there have been reports of lots of helicopters. But we haven't tied helicopters in with the mutilations...
In the years to follow, such sightings continued to be linked with mutilations.