A form of helpless paranoia hangs like a shroud over large areas of the western half of the United States. A mysterious agency strikes out of the darkness and leaves its grisly evidence behind.

CAROLYN McCALL'S EXPERIENCE sends cold chills rippling down the spine. Carolyn was the wife of the manager of Hay Creek Ranch near Antelope, Oregon who stumbled across this dead bull on her ranch. The bull looked as though he had just dropped in his tracks since the lower limbs of a Juniper tree were broken beneath him.

Carolyn's horse reared up and would not approach the animal. After she had summoned other riders it was learned that the bull had been dead about a week, yet there was no odor of decay, and a complete absence of the usual magpies, buzzards, and flies refused to descend on the carcass.

The nose, eye, ear, tongue, rectum, scrotum and center of the abdomen had been excised by precision bloodless surgery, leaving serrated-edged cavities. A perfect triangle was cut into the hide of one shoulder. This was a typical "mute" also known as a surgical animal mutilation. I learned about this case when I was in Oregon appearing on TV.

INTO THE FIFTH DECADE AND NO CULPRIT EVER CAUGHT

We are now into the fifth decade of this frightening, relentless activity of slaughtered animals by phantom surgeons. No estimates can be made of the total victims, but it must be more than 50,000 just in the USA alone. By January 1997 Jean Barton, a Lassen County California cattle owner, had suffered some cattle mutilations, and when she publicized it, she was overwhelmed by the number of other ranchers who had reported similar losses. Through the years many ranchers have stopped reporting their losses, and the county sheriffs have sought to reduce the totals and to avoid criticism over so many unsolved cases.

Silence has become the reaction to this eerie menace that cannot be stopped. The time has long since passed for officialdom's "head in the sand" attitude. Only a delusional fool would cling to the untenable theories of predators or disease or quasi-military research or satanic cults.

I will also not waste words on the ruinous strife that has occurred between Government officials, State lab pathologists, criminal division investigators on the one hand and ranchers, farmers, veterinarians and county sheriffs on the other.

Gabe Valdez, a New Mexico State Policeman said it right, "They are like coyotes coming from behind. Never saying who they are, but asking a lot of questions. Then they leave until the next 'mute.'"

In the past, armed ranchers have patrolled their land day and night. Some of the most massive manhunts in the history of these regions have been mounted. During the peak year of 1975 in Colorado, Governor Richard Lamm ordered radar equipped guard helicopters into the fray. The elusive alien surgeons remained undetected just as they always had and ranchers lost thousands of dollars for each dead carcass.

IN BETWEEN THE CELLS AND SHREDDED ALUMINUM

On a global scale, cattle mutilation phenomena are most intense in western USA. Places like Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, and Scandinavia are trailing somewhere behind. In England, or points east into the Middle East, it seems a rarity. No human effects are ever found around a downed cow.

Predatory animals avoid the mutilated carcass and maggots stop at the wound edge. Often a circle of wilted grass is found. Dr. Levengood, a Michigan biophysicist examined grass from inside ovals at Garnett, Kansas and Chacon, New Mexico and found cellular changes in the plants suggesting exposure to microwave frequencies. In the animals themselves, cauterized exposure of tissue to high heat results in "necrosis" meaning tissue death by heat.

On the other hand some cases have been found where it is not a laser burn. Instead microscopic study has revealed a clean incision precisely between the cell boundaries, something totally beyond human skill. The reproductive system is frequently removed, and the anus cored out.

Frequently the eyes are removed leaving the fatty pad. The tongue is missing from deep in the throat. Chest incision removes organs thereby leaving no evidence of bone fracture. A cow may have 40 gallons of blood and some have had it all removed down to the capillary level. This is another feat beyond our science.

Some odd things have been found at "mute" sites. Sheriff Yarnell of Elbert County Colorado, found an udder neatly cleaned out and packed with sand. Teats have been snipped off and arranged in perfect order on a leg. Perfect circles or squares have been cut out of hide. Aluminum strips were found in one cow's mouth --the same metal fragments that fell in such profusion in the 1960s. Geiger counter readings at some sites have been higher than the surrounding areas.

THE SPECTACLE OF A FLOATING COW

On September 13, 1994 near Chacon, New Mexico, Larry Gardner spotted two dead cows while on his way to hunt bear near Luhan Canyon. All of a sudden, Larry heard a noise like the sound of an arc welder coming from the opposite direction from where he had seen the cows. On the other side of a fence, Larry was shocked to find one of the cows moving on its side toward the noise and unable to get up. When it came to a ditch, it floated right over it. The cow disappeared into a grove of trees.

Unnerved by what he had seen, Larry fired two quick shots over the trees and fled. Later it was found there were no indications that the animal had touched the damp ground. Linda Moulton Howe, America's foremost "mute" researcher investigated this incident.

Two kinds of aerial objects haunt "mute" skies. They are the UFOs and the black helicopters. I will deal with the UFOs first, choosing a few examples from the thousands. The large Terry Sherman Ranch in Uintah County, Utah, has been a hotbed of UFOs and bizarre activity since March 1995. They link the loss of several cows to UFOs.

Three kinds of UFOs were seen, a small box-like craft, a 40 foot object, and a huge ship the size of two football fields. They have seen orange lights, some of which emerged from orange circular doorways that appeared in the sky. From Judith Basin County undersheriff, Jerry Skelton wrote me, "I don't know what you have got for facts on these UFOs but people see them flying around here all the time."

In that Montana area the usual diabolical thing were happening to the cattle population. In Fergus County, nine heifers were found together minus their female organs and one ear. Pat McGuire, an outfitter and guide in Big Laramie, Wyoming, provided me with extensive UFO Mute documentation in his area. He referred to the UFOs as spaceships and his multiple witness reports were many.

In Pat's closest sighting, he described a 30 foot by 500 foot orange disc with domes on top and bottom. In Logan County, in northeastern Colorado, eerie bright objects dubbed "Big Mama and her Babies " were seen repeatedly by bewildered ranchers and law officers who linked them with 77 "mute" deaths in the county.

Sheriff Harry Graves said, "'Big Mama' looks like a huge brilliant star that hovers high in the sky for up to 90 minutes, then suddenly disappears at great speed. Sometimes as many as three baby UFOs come out of her belly. When the little ones get done with whatever they are doing they join up with the big one and disappear. We have chased 'Big Mama' by plane and car, and sometimes she is round, and other times pear-shaped. The UFO's colors change from white to red to green to white."

One night in May 1991, a Washington State ranch hand watched as an 1800 pound bull was drawn up into a blue beam of light head first. At the top, the beam seemed to flare, and the bull was turned endwise five or six times.

After the beam snapped off, the ranch hand heard an enormous plop as the animal was dropped from mid-air and hit the ground hard. In the daylight, the bull was found to be a typical "mute" victim.

LAWMEN ROUTED BY UFOs AND BLACK HELICOPTERS

Now let me move on to that other puzzling kind of craft seen at "mute" sites. In his book, The Copters and the Choppers by Tom Adams, (PO Box 1049 Paris, Texas 75460)Tom lists 200 helicopter "mute" proximity reports. Not all helicopters are black, and some may be conventional craft. In some instances the copter flew up from the spot and a "mute" was later found there.

Of all the western sheriffs, perhaps Roy Kitson and his deputies of Madison County, Montana can claim the wildest experiences with the black copters and UFOs. By 1976, 22 mutilations had occurred in the county, but the witch's brew of alien aircraft far outnumbered this. Kitson and his men learned to sleep with their boots on, for when UFO reports started up, they knew they had to hit the ground running.

One afternoon, Kitson and his men headed up toward Horse Creek, where six cows were reported mutilated. In the 12 hours before the officers got up into the rugged area, the six calves with the cows had also vanished. In the rugged, dark mountains of the upper Ruby River, the three officers watched weird glowing lights darting over the treetops and around mountain sides. On this memorable night, silent jet black helicopters also swooped in on them. The two groups of copters and UFOs had joined forces. The helpless lawmen finally retreated out of the area.

HELICOPTER RIDERS IN BUSINESS SUITS

There were so many UFOs seen around the little town of Fyffe in Northeast Alabama, that the State Senate declared it "The UFO Capital of Alabama." In 1992 this proved to be a harbinger of days when bovine corpses would litter the landscape. The ever present UFOs and helicopters were around, too. Ted Oliphant, the lawman heading the investigation from Fyffe stated, "95% of these cases include reports of helicopters."