Case file · Animal mutilation
Harvey County mutilations
On 25 October 1973 three cows were found in Harvey County, Kansas, with their sex organs removed, part of the Kansas wave that autumn.
1973 CE · 38.04, -97.42 · status: disputed
The researched reading
A thinly documented entry in a well-studied scare. Scavenging of dead stock, seen through the expectations of that autumn, is by far the most likely story.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 50% | Missing sex organs are exactly the soft, exposed tissue that scavengers, birds and blowfly larvae take first; field experiments on carcasses have reproduced the neat-looking wounds within a day or two. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 16% | The find came at the height of the autumn 1973 Kansas wave, when ranchers and deputies were primed to see any dead cow as part of the series. |
| Undetermined | 16% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| Something known, misidentified | 6% | Ordinary deaths, from bloat or poisoning for example, followed by scavenging can be read as killings. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | Three animals found together could include human cutting by copycats during the scare; it cannot be excluded from the thin record. |
| Secret human technology | 3% | Theories of secret government sampling have no documentary or physical support. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 2% | No unusual natural process is required. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 2% | Nothing recorded about these three cows goes beyond the ordinary wave explanations. |
Official position: No separate finding; the Kansas authorities attributed the 1973 wave as a whole to disease and predators.