What seems to be lacking in both cases is an awareness of who found the bodies- farmers and ranchers. Now yes, you’re going to find some clueless or deluded individuals no matter where you go (And group psychology can help in that regard too. Once someone says aliens are mutilating his cattle, perhaps the next guy will too), but in general, most farmers and ranchers should be pretty familiar with dead animals and how they appear under different circumstances.

I just don’t know about these cases. I think officials write them off way too easily, but I also think the public buys into them way too easily too. And all those strange lights in the sky, well, maybe they have something to do with all this, and maybe they don’t. Only investigation can ever hope to discern the difference between coincidence and synchronicity, and even then it might not be enough.

Well, it does suggest fifteen cows were totally drained of blood, so I’d say that covers cows. There certainly is not enough information to tell really what is going on here. Lots of animals drink blood or lap up pooled blood, or whatever, but I get the feeling from these reports that the corpses were bone dry which is odd. That is difficult to explain away without more complete details. Very curious.

Blood dries quickly if it isn’t removed by predators or scavengers or drained/soaked into the ground. I doubt many people could recognize a dried out bloodstain on most soils, especially if vegetation is there to hide it and assist in removing it do to dew formation.

Uninformed people finding a dead animal seem to think that there should be huge puddles of blood. Most never realize that bleeding stops when the heart stops unless a body is placed so that gravity will drain out the blood. Blood pools and coagulates (livre mortis) inside a dead body and while decomposition causes reliquification of blood, it takes a while.

I’ve done too many dead body situations on my former job. Educational maybe, but psychologically unhealthy for me so I’m stopping here. Too many bad memories.

There really isn’t enough information to make an informed conclusion. For instance, “autopsies” were supposedly done (animal autopsies are more properly referred to as necropsies). Who performed the necropsies? Was it a local farmer, someone affiliated with the police, or a licensed veterinarian? Were they experienced in animal pathology? Were the necropsies done in the field or in a facility designed for such activity, with access to a laboratory? Had there been any rain that might have washed away traces of blood? Had any scavengers been at the carcasses? Many types of insects consume blood and other debris from the area surrounding dead animals. Were the dead animals in an area with sandy or gravelly soil, where much of the blood and body liquids could have drained away?

Many predators and scavengers will drink pooled blood from carcasses. Weasels and some cats are known to do this. And many predators, when faced with a situation where there is a lot of livestock or poultry in a confined area, will continue to kill and kill until either they are tired, driven away, or every animal within reach is dead. The mass killing of the chickens, especially by weasels and other mustelids (foxes , coyotes, and cats have been known to do engage in mass livestock killings too) is something with which poultry farmers the world over are familiar. Even tame dogs sometimes go on livestock killing sprees and kill many more animals than they can eat.

I doubt that these incidents were complete fabrications. There probably were some animals killed and maybe some had unusual wounds. It could be that there was an investigation, the details of which became embellished with each retelling, human nature being what it is. After someone came up with the term “vampire” to describe the killings, human nature would do the rest. Then when more animals nearby turned up dead, human nature would no doubt come into action again, and see a link where maybe there really wasn’t one. After all, we have the example of the Maine Mutant from last summer to show us how true stories can become inflamed all out of proportion almost overnight.

There may have been a large bird in the area. It could even have been a bird unfamiliar to that region. I doubt that the bird had anything to do with the killings, though, except possibly as a scavenger. Birds don’t generally engage in mass killings. Its presence was probably a coincidence.

Something or some things killed those animals, and I, too, am curious as to what it could have been. Even if it was a known or a common animal it is an interesting case.

That sounds exactly like the way a jaguar takes prey. They are the only large cat known to routinely kill prey by biting through the skull. And they have nice long claws on all four feet with which to make all those scratches.