In the past year NIDS has received calls regarding six mutilation cases involving cattle and horses in the Uintah Basin and Utah. The problem is that the calls have come too late to conduct any real scientific analysis, Kelleher related. We would really prefer a system where ranchers and farmers would be more aware of us and able to inform us sooner than a week after the event. Pete Pickup lives in Randlett and works as a full-time field investigator for NIDS in the Uintah Basin. Whenever a suspected mutilation or unusual aircraft sighting in the Uintah Basin is reported to NIDS, Pickup is immediately dispatched to investigate.
All information is keep confidential and names of callers and witnesses are never released.
And in the right cases, money is no object, said Kelleher. There is a very big difference between making a report and having a case fully investigated. If we feel a case is strong enough, we will go to the wall. The case remains one of the more intriguing investigated by NIDS because it was relatively fresh and a good amount of tissue and blood samples were able to be taken, something of a rarity. Tests, which NIDS had conducted at two separate veterinary laboratories at university research facilities, confirmed the animals' left eye and the portion of its left ear were removed with a sharp instrument and not by scavengers.