Todmorden Calf mutillation - 05/07/2020
**Warning GRAPHIC CONTENT**
Full report available to download for 7 days, (please contact me directly for a copy after that time.) - https://we.tl/t-ZLpc5gaWeK
On the 5th of July Mr Albert Tyas discovered a mutilated Calf when out walking near Lumbutts Road, Todmorden. It was alone in a sheep pasture with no other cows, nor the mother close by and seemed very out of place.
Fortunately Mr Tyas is familiar with the subject matter and instantly recognised what could be termed as a 'classic animal mutilation'. He had the presence of mind to take a series of eight pictures documenting the scene. He also searched the ground, along with his partner, for signs of anything unusual. The area was clean, with no signs of a struggle, no blood and no missing parts, (such as ear, with tag).
Mr Tyas, next contacted Deborah Hatswell who runs a network of researchers across the UK; (British Bigfoot Research, cryptid and paranormal investigations.) She, in turn, reached out to David Cayton, a prominent UK based animal mutilation investigator. She also posted a series of reports on her Facebook page.
9th July: https://www.facebook.com/16984340033...9554176363342/
10th July: https://www.facebook.com/16984340033...2180177100742/
22nd July: https://www.facebook.com/16984340033...9554176363342/
As can be seen from the images below, the animal was lying on it's right side, roughly 50ft down an incline from the footpath. It was facing East-North-East and three large wounds were clearly visible. Close examination of these wounds reveals wet, red blood seepage around the lower jaw, suggesting that it was killed very recently.
It displays a typical 'jaw strip', which is to say that the skin and muscle tissue have been removed, in an oval pattern, from the muzzle to the throat area, right back to expose clean bone.
The left ear is missing and appears to be cut back to the skull with a complete lack of any blood. Here it is apparent that the ear was removed post mortem due to the complete absence of any blood splatter.
There is a large circular hole in the rectal area, including the removal of the tail. Here again clean bone is just visible in the images and there is no sign of blood on the surrounding hide.
Close examination of the pictures appears to show that the tongue is also missing. (See image #3.) It is also worth noting that the calf's head is actually lower than the rest of the body, due to the incline of the pasture. Given the apparent removal of the tongue, it seems there should be more pooling (of blood) around the head area.
On Sunday, 17th of July, I finally had plans in place to meet Albert Tyas and visit the calf mutilation site. Myself and my business partner (and fiance) Victoria, gathered a few items (latex gloves, for sure) and set out for Todmorden. About 40 mins drive.
We met with Albert and Hannah part way along the walk, as arranged. They were both very friendly, open and helpful and led us the short distance to the site.
The scene that greeted us was very different from that of the 5th of July. Below is an excerpt from my email back to the group of interested parties:
"From: Lee Nicholson.
Finally got back from the calf mute site, unfortunately predators (probably foxes) have pretty much decimated the scene.
I was a little bit behind on this story and two weeks has left very little evidence to recover. Full credit goes to Albert (and Hannah) here for the initial discovery and for the thoughtfulness to reach out to others.
Thankfully, again credit to Albert, we have pretty good images of the site before scavengers disturbed the scene. As per David's suggestions:
- We checked EM with a phone based app, nothing above normal background.
- We couldn't see any sign of the ear tag(s), nor anything unusual around the area.
- Second set of pics from Albert shows blow fly strike, and predator activity, so nothing present to deter that.
- We did take soil samples from directly underneath the carcass's original location and two more from about 20ft away either side.
- We also scanned the area with a powerful magnet looking for any metallic debris, but found nothing.
David Cayton provided images and information regarding a sheep mutilation he investigated on Lumbutts road in 2002.
Media coverage:
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/wei...haped-22404494
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/121988...erious-attack/
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/artic...ed-in-england/
https://www.ladbible.com/news/weird-...nk-so-20200723