NIDS Investigates Cattle Mutilation in Los Brasos, New Mexico
In September 1997, NIDS examined a five-day-old mutilation in Los Brasos, New Mexico, in which the cow's teats, anus and tongue had been excised. Investigators found overturned cow pats in a 76-metre line suggesting localised wind-shear with no other property damage.
Background
The Case
In September 1997, an NIDS field team travelled to Los Brasos, a small community in northern New Mexico, to examine a cattle mutilation reported to be approximately five days old. The cow had been mutilated in the characteristic pattern — teats, anus and tongue excised with surgical precision — and scavengers had avoided the carcass.
Environmental Anomaly
What set the Los Brasos case apart was what the team found at ground level. In a 76-metre line along one direction from the carcass, dried cow pats had been overturned, as if struck by a narrow, focused blast of wind. No trees were felled, no fence lines disturbed, and no other debris was displaced. The localised pattern was difficult to reconcile with natural weather.
Investigator's Note
The NIDS file treated the wind-shear pattern as potentially caused by an overhead object's downwash rather than ordinary meteorological activity, though the team explicitly noted that it could not be proven. Coulthart cites the case as an example of the kind of subtle physical-trace evidence NIDS routinely collected.