Cattle are being found dead across remote stretches of Oregon with their blood apparently drained and their udders, tongues or genitals removed through clean, scalpel-like cuts.
There are no signs of a struggle, no tracks surrounding the carcasses and none of the torn flesh or tooth marks normally left by predators.
More than 10,000 cattle mutilations are estimated to have been reported across the US over the past half-century, spawning theories involving cults, secret government experiments, UFOs and mythical creatures such as the chupacabra.
Now a new documentary, Not One Drop of Blood, available to stream this week on Amazon Prime Video, investigates the enduring phenomenon and a recent cluster of cases in Oregon’s remote Harney County.
The mystery intensified in February 2021, when one mutilated cow was discovered on ranch land before six more were found across the county with body parts missing and reportedly no blood remaining.
One local law enforcement officer admits in the film that the baffling evidence has pushed even him toward an extraordinary explanation: ‘My personal opinion, it’s aliens.’
Authorities have found nothing pointing to predators, cattle thieves or poisonous plants, while local veterinarians said the wounds resembled scalpel cuts rather than animal bites.
Yet filmmakers Jackson Devereux and Lachlan Hinton say the absence of answers has exposed a deeper crisis confronting overstretched authorities and a ranching community already fighting to preserve its way of life.
Cattle are being found dead across remote stretches of Oregon with their blood apparently drained and their udders, tongues or genitals removed through clean, scalpel-like cuts
Harney County is the ninth-largest county in the US by area, according to Devereux, and its cattle outnumber its people by approximately 14 to one.
Its immense, isolated ranches can take officers hours to reach, giving investigators little hope of preserving evidence when another carcass is reported.
Devereux, an Australian filmmaker based in New York, heard about the mutilations from friends in a touring rock band who caught an Oregon radio report about six dead cattle.
He and Hinton contacted journalist Anna King, who had reported on the cases and joined the documentary as a producer. They interviewed police, ranchers, agricultural workers, young residents and Indigenous people.
‘It just felt very cinematic and larger than just the simple viral element of the mystery,’ Devereux said. ‘It’s these sprawling landscapes that kind of have this mystery that looms over them.’
The documentary focuses on descriptions repeated across numerous cases: Animals appear to have simply collapsed, leaving no disturbed dirt or hoof marks indicating a violent struggle. Their tongues, udders or reproductive organs are missing, yet there is none of the ragged damage expected from scavengers.
Rancher Clint Weaver initially believed one dead bull had been killed while fighting another animal.
‘First, we thought it was just the bulls fighting, so we kind of chalked that up to a death,’ Weaver said.
‘And then we found another one. And then we started looking at them a lot closer, and noticed that their testicles and their reproductive organs were gone. Then we drove up the creek and found the rest of them.’
‘And it was the same: the testicles, reproductive organs, sometimes the tongues were gone. And then we knew something was going on, so then we called the law enforcement in.’
More than 10,000 cattle mutilations are estimated to have been reported across the US over the past half-century, spawning theories involving cults, secret government experiments, UFOs and mythical creatures such as the chupacabra
Now a new documentary, Not One Drop of Blood, available to stream this week on Amazon Prime Video, investigates the enduring phenomenon and a recent cluster of cases in Oregon’s remote Harney County
The apparent absence of blood from the animals is one of the most perplexing details and inspired the documentary’s title.
Investigators found no tracks or evidence that the cattle had eaten a deadly plant, Devereux said. Local veterinarians also rejected predator attacks as an explanation because an animal biting and tearing at flesh would leave visibly different damage.
‘This looks like a scalpel,’ Devereux said of the wounds. ‘It’s very precise.’
He initially suspected that natural causes or insects could explain the deaths. But ranchers monitor their cattle daily and generally recognize signs that an animal is sick, he said, leaving him increasingly uncertain as each potential explanation encountered another conflicting detail.
One local law enforcement officer admits in the film that the baffling evidence has pushed even him toward an extraordinary explanation: ‘My personal opinion, it’s aliens’
The film explores a spate of mutilations in Harney, Oregon
Similar mutilations have been reported across the US, Canada and Mexico since the late 1960s. Elk and deer have also reportedly been found with comparable injuries.
The phenomenon has developed what Devereux described as a cult-like following within the paranormal community. Linda Moulton Howe’s 1980 documentary Strange Harvest famously explored claims that extraterrestrials were responsible.
Many Harney County residents nevertheless suspect human attackers. Their theories include people using poison darts to incapacitate cattle before draining their blood and removing organs for ritualistic or illicit purposes, although investigators have uncovered no evidence substantiating those ideas.
Devereux believes UFO and paranormal theories persist because residents and investigators have spent approximately 50 years confronting the same disturbing details without finding a conventional answer.
Harney County Sheriff’s Department officer Matt Ellibee said he and the sheriff had considered explanations involving devil worshippers and the occult. But the seemingly impossible circumstances left him contemplating something even more extraordinary.
‘My personal opinion, it’s aliens,’ Ellibee said. ‘I don’t know how else to explain it.
‘Do I believe in aliens? I don’t know. I don’t believe we’re the only intelligent species in our universe. But unless there’s some super secret squirrel black op group out there able to do this stuff, I don’t know what else it’d be.’
He questioned whether an unknown clandestine operation could possess the ability to kill and mutilate the animals without leaving evidence, adding: ‘Unless there’s some super secret squirrel black op group out there able to do this stuff, I don’t know what else it’d be.’
Authorities have found nothing pointing to predators, cattle thieves or poisonous plants, while local veterinarians said the wounds resembled scalpel cuts rather than animal bites
The filmmakers found sheriff’s office reports concerning cattle mutilations dating to the 1970s. Devereux said their descriptions were ‘pretty much word for word’ the same as reports being written more than 50 years later.
Part of the problem is practical. Officers may travel two hours to examine a new case only to find no tracks, physical evidence or obvious cause of death. They must then turn their attention to more immediate crimes, leaving the cattle investigation unresolved until another animal is found.
Attempts to coordinate investigations among different counties and agencies have also failed to produce a conclusive explanation.
The documentary connects the mystery with a ranching culture that Devereux believes is approaching a crossroads. Families work around the clock across enormous properties while questioning whether younger generations, now connected to life outside the county through the internet, will continue operating the ranches.
The directors approached the project skeptically, but Devereux admitted that the landscape could make even unlikely explanations feel possible.
‘You stop, and you look around, and you can’t see anything but cow’s eyes and pitch black in the sky,’ he said. ‘At that point in time, you feel anything could happen out there in these landscapes.’
