Operation Animal Mutilation officially began on May 28, 1979. On that date, I assumed the role of project director, well aware of the controversial nature of the subject I was about to investigate. During the past few years, as I have shown, scores of articles had been written about the New Mexico cases. These mutilations have been variously linked with UFOs, environmental testing, biological experiments, and nuclear activities. A few individuals, however, including some very knowledgeable veterinarians, have continually maintained that the real mutilators are predators and scavengers. This theory, I soon learned, was one of the least popular.