16 horses are found dead near Calhan

[kentuck]

Calhan is about 20 miles to the east of Colorado Springs and this is a real mystery. Very scary...
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http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1311506&secid=1

<snip>
CALHAN - The discovery Saturday of 16 more dead horses in eastern El Paso County has left ranchers worried and investigators puzzled over who or what is killing the animals.

In all, 22 horses and one burro have died under mysterious circumstances in the past two weeks in the same area. There is still no explanation for the deaths of the seven animals found Oct. 11.

“I’ve never, never seen an animal die like that,� said William DeWitt, the lifelong rancher who owned the horses found Saturday. “It certainly wasn’t natural.�

DeWitt was speaking of a horse that looked as though it died before it hit the ground. It was on its stomach, legs bent, and nose in the dirt. The head was upright.

[Union Thug]

1. Which will it be this time around? Aliens or Satanists?

just askin'

[Richard D]

2. Or DoD

[kentuck]

9. We are close to Norad and the testing of "space weapons"...

So that is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Maybe we'll be seeing a new weapon in Iraq sometime in the near future?

[ret5hd]

3. it's those goddamned illegal aliens i'm tellin' ya!

now they're even goin' after the jobs only a horse or a burro would take...and at only half the pay!

[democrat in Tallahassee]

4. anybody seen cheney? I think he lives off horse blood or something

[Minstrel Boy]

13. Well, exactly 5 years ago after Cheney visited Roswell,

"24 cattle were found dead under mysterious circumstances."

I'm just sayin'.

[Theres-a]

37. Whoa nelly

That is some scary sh*t!

[Octafish]

40. Ya'd think people'd heard about Linda Moulton Howe by now.

It's odd to read those who know the least denigrate those who know the most.



Snippy was a horse.

[Minstrel Boy]

43. You said it, Octaman.

From a post on my blog a few months ago, Bless the beasts and children:

Not much effort was devoted to debunking cattle mutilation. The rural setting of the crimes made it easy to convince sophisticated city-dwellers - who never see a living cow let alone one mutilated - that it was all the work of natural predators, copycat punks or disease. Nevermind that ranchers knew better, nor that it never went away.

Two weeks ago, Ray Riguidel found the mutilated carcass of a 10-year old cow in his pasture. One eye, one ear, its udder and sex organs were missing. There were no tracks or footprints. There was no blood.

"I’ve heard about it before, but it never really sunk in," Riguidel said."But it’s sunk in now. It’s real."

George Larre, who lost a cow to a similar mutilation five years before, added "If you haven’t seen it, I wouldn’t expect anyone to believe it. But if you really see one for yourself, and you understand what coyotes will do, you know it’s not predators. Some people say it’s from up above, and I don’t know. I’m not going to say it is or it isn’t. But when you see absolutely no clues and no reason, you really have to wonder."

[blackhorse]

44. There

... is an interesting article on the NIDS site about cattle mutilation. Their take was that at least some of it was government black ops and tied into checking the health of the national herd vis-a-vis BSE.

But gosh, we KNOW our government would tell us if the food chain was compromised. Wouldn't they?

Cheers

BH

[HeeBGBz]

45. Once you see one of those, you don't forget it

HEE B

[davsand]

5. Were those horses tasered?

From the article:

"The horses discovered Oct. 11 appeared to have entry wounds similar to bullet holes. But exams and X-rays revealed no bullet fragments or slugs. Investigators have not speculated what caused the wounds."

Tasers? Would that do it? Would that leave a wound like that? I don't know enough about tasers to know for sure, but that is the first thing I wondered when I saw that section in the article.



Laura

[NickB79]

6. Those aren't bullet holes, they're fang marks!

Chupacabra strikes again! They must be moving north; damn global warming has expanded their range!

[OKthatsIT]

33. no, it wasn't an animal attack

the herd would have scattered.

[DBoon]

39. They are coming in disguised as illegal immigrants!

terra! terra!

[Lochloosa]

7. I KNOW...I KNOW...from a Doc Savage book

Bullets made of Ice!...

Ha.solved!

[cyberpj]

12. That's what I thought - and some kids will try anything after reading it.

But didn't someone disprove that, saying they'd melt during firing?

dunno fer sure.

[flamin lib]

18. Myth Busters disproved the ice bullet thing. The rapid acceleration

turned it into vapor before it left the barrel. They were designing an "umbrella gun" ala some spy myth. Wound up using an air gun and BBs.

[MarsThe Cat]

35. the umbrella "gun" is not a spy "myth"....

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/killer-umbrella-in-spy-museum/id_5045/catid_5

A BULGARIAN killer umbrella is part of the recently opened International Spy Museum in Washington DC.

According to Jennifer Saxon, media relations manager of the museum, the umbrella is part of an exhibition on concealed weapons in a portion of the museum called "School for Spies" that explores the tools of the spy trade, the motivations and the skills that are employed by spies. She explained that in 1978, the KGB used an umbrella like the one on display – modified to fire a tiny pellet filled with poison – to assassinate dissident Georgi Markov on the streets of London.

Bulgarian emigre writer and journalist Markov died in London at age 49. He was a victim of a political murder. But his killer has never been apprehended. Markov was an acclaimed novelist and playwright in Bulgaria prior to his defection to the West in 1969. He was known for his harsh criticism of the autocratic rule of the communist party and particularly of its leader, Todor Zhivkov.

The assassination was carried out in London on September 7, 1978, Zhivkov's birthday. Queuing for the bus, Markov experienced a sudden stinging pain from an umbrella. Later it was found that he died of "septicemia, a form of blood poisoning caused by bacterial toxins, possibly a result of kidney failure".

[Lochloosa]

23. They used frozen nitrogen...but Doc figured it out..he always did

[teknomanzer]

22. I believe lightning...

produces entry wounds... although 16 dead animals is a strange occurance...

[pushycat]

55. How about electric bullets. 80,000 volts for 7 seconds aught

to knock a horse stiff.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/8/23/132750/438

[Ready4Change]

8. Mentions entry wounds like bullets

But without any slugs or fragments being found.

Until I read that I was wondering if it could be a gas kill, like from some awakening geothermic activity.

But now, I dunno. Someone with a high powered rifle taking shots at angles where the round, once it passes through, travels for a long distance beyond the target?

[kentuck]

10. My first impression was...

that it was something in the environment or some type of bug that attacks animals, like a leech of sorts....?

[Ready4Change]

14. Maybe it was...

Graboids!

[Lochloosa]

52. Exit wounds? There is no mention of them.

:tinfoilhat:

[sofa king]

62. Or into the ground....

[Kali]

11. Entry wounds but no bullets or fragments.

Somebody get a hold of a bolt gun? (for stunning/killing livestock prior to butchering)

[achtung_circus]

21. A captive bolt requires contact

and if placement is not perfect will just leave a hole, which in most areas of the body would be non-lethal.

[Kali]

27. Hi AC,

It didn't say where the wounds were, but one might be able to approach "pet" horses easier than other livestock.

[achtung_circus]

30. Hi Kali.

Haven't seen you around.

[BeHereNow]

15. This makes me cry.

I love horses .
Prefer them to people most of the time.
BHN

[A-Possum]

17. Me too

All the yukking it up about aliens isn't very funny. Humans are the only ones with the twisted minds to do this.

[zoe2]

24. If you are concerned about this...

Please be aware that the Republicans are about to carry out their own killing of horses, in reversing the ban on horse slaughter that was just passed by the House and Senate. For more information and what you can do, please see -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deanne-stillman/death-row-horses-about-to_b_9242.html

[BeHereNow]

29. Welcome to DU zoe2!

Thanks for the link-
I live in an equestrian area and
we are all networking on it!
BHN

[zoe2]

32. thanks for warm welcome, BHN!

Great that you're on it - it's our heritage at stake!

[William Seger]

16. Maybe arrows or crossbow bolts...

... that were removed?

[TX-RAT]

49. Beat me to it.

Cross bows, and Compound bows are capable of putting an arrow or bolt completely through an animal.

[Ready4Change]

60. Hunting arrows/bolts most often razor tipped

The razors increase the damage done, increasing the speed at which the creature hit dies, decreasing suffering. However, unless it is exacly placed, death is hardly ever instant with a bow or crossbow.

Further, the razor tips leave telltale wounds, and make extraction very difficult without leaving still more evidence.

Admit I know little about non-razor tipped arrows. I'd guess them to be less lethal, but leaving smoother wounds and being easier to extract?

[spacelady]

19. Maybe those microwave lasers they want to use for crowd control?

[brentspeak]

20. Equus

The play about the disturbed teenager who blinded a stable of horses with a spike.

[meisje]

25. Tasey Horse Virus

Be very afraid.... or not

[Whoa_Nelly]

26. Video Link to story

http://cbs4denver.com/pets/local_story_296095246.html

Select the small video icon of the older gentleman.

In searching for more info, this is being looked at as possible lightning strike(s). Am wondering if horses are in an open nd wet pasture, and there's a lightning storm, could a strike lead to multiple deaths and also leave a hole in each of the animals from the point of exit of the electricity?

[Kali]

28. I Know of multiple deaths from lightening

cattle usually, but not sure about entrance/exit wounds. Have also seen 10 heifers killed at once by a downed powerline, obviously not the case here.

[achtung_circus]

31. Lightning usually travels along the legs of livestock

there are typically scorch marks either on the skin or subcutaneous. It's usually an easy call.

[cyberpj]

38. Way too hard to believe the two incidents arent' related. Both

groups in the same "area" and all horses with the same "wound"s

=====================================================

2 Cases Of Dead Horses Not Related
Save It Email It Print It
(CBS4) Calhan, CO Sixteen more horses were found dead out near Calhan in El Paso County.

snip...
The horses found this week were near the same area where seven other horses were found last week.


snip...
Toxicology results on the seven horses found last week came back negative for rat poison. That is what investigators originally suspected. There were also some wounds on the animals from that case.

[Jose Diablo]

34. Tak can dah lah

Replenishing his sark.

[jus_the_facts]

64. S'that from 'Desperation' or 'The Regulators'.....

:scared: :hi:

[Auntie Bush]

36. The Administration is experimenting on a new secret weapon

for the mass killing of people in case of a revolt against the government when they refuse to relinquish when they lose the net election.

Only kidding Agent Mike.

[burrowowl]

46. Could be

late 50's or early 60's the military killed over 10,000 sheep in Utah.

[Horse with no Name]

41. This sounds like a hate crime

however, it is strange.
I would think if the horses saw the others hitting the ground dying, they wouldn't stick around to be the next.
We had a horse die of rabies when I was a kid.
It paced and paced and paced in the stalls then it started running into the door until it got loose, ran through 2 barb wired fences.
When it dropped, it was frothing and foaming at the mouth...the other horses got spooked when it was acting weird in the stall and we had to move them to another barn because they were freaked out.
They are very perceptive.
I can't see them all staying in one spot when other horses were dying and hitting the ground. I just can't.
Something is very strange.

[kentuck]

42. If you recall, a few years ago there was the mystery of mutilated cows...

..with no blood around the carcasses. Still a mystery... There were rumors of space creatures and such...

[Horse with no Name]

47. yeah but cows are dumber than horses

there IS something to that old saying "he's got good horse sense".
I'm pretty open minded but I don't see it being aliens.
I think it is more of a few kids that are into torture.

[bleedingheart]

48. why didn't anyone put that poor animal down before it did that?

did they only find out about the rabies after it died?

[Horse with no Name]

50. Yeah

You can only diagnose it when you cut off their head and send it to the state.
We didn't know what was wrong with him. Rabies was the farthest thing from our mind.
On edit, let me rephrase. That was all you could do THEN.
This has been about 25 or more years ago, I would hope the testing would be a little more advanced.

[the_spectator]

51. Send in Brownie!

This kind of disaster he might actually have some qualifications to deal with!

[TK421]

53. Chupacabra!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

54. You mean this guy?

[TK421]

56. Thats him, but he looks different than the last time I saw him

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

57. I think I know what you mean. Here's an older photo.

[TK421]

58. I think I prefer the other picture over this one...its a bit more charming

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

59. True, one of them looks like a slimy blood sucker and the other one

like the actual Chupacabras.

[gulfcoastliberal]

61. Wow. Dead horses. Never mind the dead Iraqis and US troops.

Why is this even new? And people say they're overdoing the bird flu pandemic coverage.

[Nihil]

63. Maybe it's more interesting?

1) It's not being hyped to death by the media (like bird flu).
2) It's not being hidden by the media (like Iraqi casualties).
3) It's not being glorified by the media (like US troop activities).
4) It's affecting a number of horses - intelligent but lovable.
5) The cause is a mystery.

I'd much rather find out about what's killing these horses in such
a manner than read another fact-free heap of crap about the subjects
that you consider important. (Now if there was anything worthwhile
being reported on those subjects, that would be different.)