ANIMAL
MUTILATIONS IN THE UK
In April 1977 there was a horrific
incident near the small Dartmoor hamlet of Postbridge. Mr Alan Hicks, his wife
and two children were walking on a remote part of the moor when they found
fifteen dead and mutilated ponies.
The injuries sustained by the victims indicated immense and
violent force. There was speculation that the ponies had been dropped or thrown
violently into the small valley where they were found. Some of the victims
appeared to decompose very rapidly and the whole incident was shrouded in
mystery, a result of which was the numerous theories put forward to explain the
deaths.
The incident would have remained a local mystery,
but in July 1977 John Wyse of the Torbay
UFO group visited the area with Geiger
counters and metal detectors in the hope of finding trace elements of UFO
involvement. The story was picked up by the national press and even newspapers
across the world carried lurid headlines about the 15 ponies and the horror from
outer space.
As quickly as the story broke it disappeared from
the tabloids and nothing further was heard about the mystery. In 2000 I heard
the incident mentioned on a radio phone in on the subject
of government secrecy.
I decided there and then to investigate the matter and should say that at that
time I did not think there was an extraterrestrial explanation for the pony
deaths.
Seven years later, I am now convinced that this
incident was an animal mutilation attack, similar,
if not identical, to
thousands of cases across the USA.
During my research into the pony deaths I began to
look for similar strange animal deaths on Dartmoor and in March 2005 I stumbled
onto what is probably the largest and most complex animal mutilation case that
has been reported in the UK. The attacks began in January 2005.
THE DARTMOOR SHEEP
KILLINGS
On Sunday the 2nd January 2005
seven dead sheep were found on a hill side next to Pew Tor, Dartmoor. The bodies
were discovered at approximately 09:00 hours by a member of the public out
walking their dog. The bodies were allegedly laid out in a seven pointed occult
star. It was apparent that in addition to the seven victims, an eighth sheep had
been attacked and was in a nearby drainage ditch. The walkers, who had found the
ewe, helped to raise the animal out of the ditch whereupon it bolted across a
cattle grid into a local farmyard.
The animal remained in a traumatised state and was not
discovered for twenty four hours when
it was found next to a herb garden.
Despite the obvious temptation the animal had eaten nothing from the garden.
A local vet attended the scene and carried out a post mortem
to discover the cause of death.
He concluded that the victims had all died of
broken necks. He stated that the manner of these deaths was quite extraordinary.
Further investigation revealed that the victims
had been held in two holding areas, roughly six metres apart, prior to being
killed, the evidence for this was the ‘poaching’ of the ground in
these two
areas ( ‘poaching’ means the muddy areas where the sheep were standing – after
some minutes of trampling moisture comes to the surface, forming muddy areas).
Curiously,
there were no tracks or post marks indicating temporary fencing of
these areas.
A body map of the crime scene indicated that the
bodies were left in a roughly elliptical
shape approximately 36 metres across, and that the claim that
it formed an occult star was somewhat inaccurate.
The killings were carried out in full view of a
nearby farm and a local policeman stated his surprise that neither the dogs at
the farm nor the nearby rookery, were alerted by the perpetrators.
It was disappointing that the insides of the mouths were not
checked because it is possible that some, if not all, the tongues could have
been excised as was the case with later victims.
There were no further attacks until Friday 14th
October 2005 when four sheep were found
dead in a field near to a local car park
and within half a mile of the first incident.
The 4 victims found in the field had been left in
a roughly square arrangement and were approximately 30 metres equidistant from
each other. All the victims had had their tongues excised to the back of the
mouth and some of the eyes had been removed.
The following night four more sheep were killed, this time on
Barn Hill which is less than five hundred yards from the first attack. The four
victims were not laid out in any particular way and there was some distance
between the victims, again the tongues had been excised to the back of the mouth
and some of the eyes had been removed.
There appeared to be some disturbance to a small rocky
outcrop on Barn Hill which resulted in speculation that it might have been used
for a make-shift altar. However, there were no traces
of blood that would have
indicated a sacrifice.
There was another long break before the next attack which
took place on Monday 26th June 2006. Again, the victims were found
near Barn Hill and the three victims had suffered identical injuries – tongues
excised to the back of the mouth, one eye completely removed and the
necks were
broken. One victim had had a section of tissue approximately 6 centimetres in
length and about 5 millimetres deep, removed from the lower lip. The tissue
appeared to have been removed by an instrument that had left a precise serrated
edge. This mutilation is called the ‘cookie cutter’ in the USA, where numerous
examples of this injury have been found amongst cattle.
There was little blood at the crime scene and it appears that
one of the bodies had been removed during Tuesday night.
The attacks became more regular and two sheep were killed on
the 7th July 2006 in two
separate attacks. On the 21st
August and the 29th August there were two more victims and on the
30th August three sheep were killed in the same mysterious
manner.
In the attack on the 29th August the victim had
had an eye removed and showed evidence of rectal coring, although the tongue had
not been removed. There was a particularly disturbing occurrence with the body
of this ewe. The dead animal had been left in the back of a local farmer’s Land
Rover and when the farmer checked the body there were large piles of dead blow
flies next to the body. Whoever or whatever had killed the animal had left
something on fleece that was lethal to the flies.
During the month of September 2006 there was an orgy of
killing, with no fewer than seven attacks and twenty three victims. A disturbing
factor in these attacks was the very rapid rates of decomposition. On one
occasion, when the local farmers were carrying out an all night patrol of the
area, a lamb was killed and mutilated within minutes of the farmers searching
the crime
scene. All the September victims died within the same half mile square
of moorland.
There was a nine month respite from the attacks until
17th July 2007, when seven more victims were mutilated. As in
virtually all the previous attacks, tongues were excised and one eye was removed
from each victim. Strips of tissue were removed from the upper and lower lip
area.
The last reported attack came on the 4th November
2007, when the victim was taken from a field and transported half a mile to Barn
Hill where it was killed and mutilated.
I believe that this long series of killings began on 2nd
January 2005 and will continue until the perpetrators decide to stop. The
attacks have been carried out with impunity and despite the large number of
incidents there appears to be no witnesses. Given the small area where the
majority of victims have been found and its close proximity to Pork Hill car
park, I find this incredible. The area around Barn Hill is plainly an important
factor in these attacks.
The majority of these attacks are linked and the injuries
sustained by the animals are summarised as follows.
1. Tongue
excised by a smooth cut to the back of the throat (no blood evident)
2. One
eye completely removed (not pecked out by natural predators)
3. Rectal
coring – veterinary examination has proved that in one victim at least the anal
sphincter was removed
4. ‘Scratches’
on the underside of the forelegs (a vet suggested that these ‘scratches’ may
have been caused by a sharp instrument
5. A
two centimetre hole made in the under foreleg to access the body cavity
6. Teats
removed or partly removed by some sharp instrument
7. Bruising
around the head
8. Exceptionally
rapid decomposition of bodies
9. Broken
necks
10. Unidentified
damage to kidneys (similar to some killings in the USA)
11. Small
strips of tissue removed from jaw. The instrument used to do this leaves a
serrated
edge and appears to cauterize the tissue at the same time. This injury,
which has been
found in numerous animal mutilation attacks in the USA is
referred to as ‘the cookie cutter’
My
colleague David Gillham and I have carried out numerous all night surveillance
operations in the area around Barn Hill. During these watches we have not seen
any human activity whatsoever. However, on the night of 13th /14th May 2006 we witnessed a great deal of anomalous activity
involving flashing lights and other unidentifiable light forms in the area
around Barn Hill, Middle Staple Tor and Cox Tor. We were successful in capturing
some of this activity on camcorders.
We have seen similar activity during 2007
and I have dozens of cases of UFOs being seen in this part of Dartmoor.
©Mike
Freebury - 7th March
2008
