Dead Cow And Calf

It was a hot August day in the year 2001 when my husband, Dave went looking for his cows who were about to give birth soon. The cows run loose on the farm, so when it is time for them to give birth, Dave will keep a good watch out for them. As soon as they have their calves, he will bring them to the barn.

On this particular hot day, while looking for his cows, he found one of them in the middle of giving birth, she was dead.

Now, this is really not unusual. We have lost cows before, during the birthing process if it is a very difficult birth. What was so unusual was the condition of the dead cow and calf.

Dave came off the hill to tell me what he found. He was a little confused about what had happened. You see, the cow had been strangled under a farm gate.

I went up on the hill a few hours later to see what he was talking about. I took a camera. It was a very eerie scene indeed. There was not one fly buzzing around the dead cow. Now, in the hot August heat, you would think there would be.

In addition, how in the world did she get her head UNDER the gate? The ground was hard as a rock, and the gate had no give to it at all. The kids and I had tried to pull the gate up, while still latched, to see if there was any movement at all. The gate did not budge. It looked as if something had opened the gate, put that cow’s head under it, closed and latched it back, strangling her.

We then walked around the back-end of her, and there was a calf, half in, half out. What we saw then was the creepiest of all.

It looked as if something had taken the face, and peeled it down off the skull, like a banana. One big piece. It looked as if something had taken a knife or something sharp and cleanly cut across the forehead of the calf then peeling off the face. It was not torn off, like if an animal was trying to eat it.