May 5, 2002 on a ranch about 15 miles south of Sand Springs, a 2400 pound bull worth $2,000 was found in a shallow crater not far from the water trough. His owner, Fritz Morrison had been at the water pump at 12:30 p.m. and his bull was laying beside the trough chewing his cud, seemingly well and content along with several cows. But when Fritz returned only three hours later at 3:30 to do more work at the pump, he found the bull dead, stiff and the left eye had been removed and was "bubbling" moistness from it. Fritz then returned home to retrieve a chain to pull the animal away from the side of the road so as he wouldn't have to look at it as he drove by each day. When he returned around 5:00 or 5:30, he found that a complete mutilation had occured on the dead bull while he was gone. The tongue had been excised deep within the throat, the testicles and shaft had been bloodlessly removed leaving penis stretched out on the ground, and the rectum was cored out. One ear was also missing. Three days later, Keith Bumpass, Deputy Sheriff of the Lake County Oregon Sheriff's Office was contacted and an investigation was launched. Keith was put in contact with Dr. W.C. Levengood of BLT Research, a consultant for OUFOR. Dr.Levengood suggested looking on the animal for signs of small dark particles of dried blood. Although the bull was black, the Deputy Sheriff found a small amount around the rear of the animal. Those samples were sent to Dr.Levengood in Michigan and the results of the preliminary tests are that they are probably pure hemoglobin particles, indicating a processing of the blood had taken place during the mutilation process. Bovine Hemoglobin is a component of blood. The presence of hemoglobin indicates that a processing of the whole blood has occurred. The usual procedure for isolating hemoglobin from whole blood is rather complex. It involves separating red blood corpuscles from the lighter plasma components by centrifugation. The plasma is siphoned off and ether is added to the corpuscle paste, causing the cells to burst. Another centrifugation removes the ruptured cell envelopes and leaves a clear red solution of hemoglobin. With mutilated cows, every other component of the blood is totally disintegrated with the exception of the hemoglobin. It's turned into its elemental form. Assistant Director Eric Byler of OUFOR spoke with Deputy Sheriff Keith Bumpass the morning of May 21st and it now appears a second cow has been found. The Deputy Sheriff found the animal the day before and went out to take pictures and further investigate. He said that it appears that the animal had been dead for several weeks and it was thought that it probably went down around the same time as the first animal back on May 5, 2002. The cow also had all of the signs of a classic cattle mutilation including the tongue surgically removed at the base of the throat, the utters missing and the rectum cored out. Cattle mutilation expert and OUFOR investigator Jean Bilodeaux has been notified and will be workin! g closely with the Sheriff's department on further cattle finds in this area of South Eastern Oregon. Byler was also in contact with Colm Kelleher of The National Institute for Discovery Sciences and a top priority of securing a veterinarian to contract out with NIDS was discussed. The owner has agreed to turn over any future Bovine to OUFOR that is found and verified as being alive 24 hours or less before being found. The animal will be brought back to Salem for extensive necropsy work as paid for and contracted out through NIDS. As a side note, we at OUFOR are very pleased and appreciative of the combined cooperative efforts of the many outstanding organizations who have come together to work this case as it unfolds. Those organizations include the exceptional data gathering talents of Linda Moulton Howe, Colm Kelleher of The National Institute for Discovery Sciences, Dr. W.C. Levengood of BLT Research, cattle mutilation expert and OUFOR team member Jean Bilodeaux, and most of all the work done by Keith Bumpass, Deputy Sheriff of the Lake County Oregon Sheriff's Office who took the incentive to ask all the right questions and sent samples to the right places. We look forward to working with this talented investigator for Lake County in case of future animal mutilations that may come within the next few months. ((NUFORC Note: Our gratitude to Eric Byler of Oregon UFO Review for sharing this report. PD))