Witch hunts & wildlife (with update)

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

 

 

Rocky Mountains " Witch hunts & wildlife " panic is resolved

 

SALT LAKE CITY, DENVER-- A 13-month two-state panic over

alleged cat mutilations by purported sadists officially ended on

August 1, 2003, when police chief Ricky Bennett of Aurora,

Colorado, told news media that, " There are definite signs and

markings that all were caused by predators. "

Twenty-nine of the 46 cats who were supposedly mutilated in

Colorado were found in Aurora, but the panic actually began after

the remains of a dozen cats with similar injuries were found in the

same Salt Lake City neighborhood from which Elizabeth Smart, 14,

was kidnapped on June 5, 2002.

Smart was recovered alive on March 12, 2003. David Brian

Mitchell, 49, and his wife, Wanda E. Barzee, 57, are charged

with kidnapping Smart from her Salt Lake City bedroom, raping her,

holding her prisoner until their capture, and attempting to kidnap

Smart's 18-year-old cousin.

Mitchell's stepson Mark Thompson, who helped bring Mitchell

to justice, told Newsweek that Mitchell had a history of cruelty to

animals " He shot our dog in front of us. He killed our bunny and

made us eat it, " Mitchell recalled.

But Mitchell was not named as a suspect in the Smart

kidnapping until shortly before his arrest, and none of the 58 cats

whose deaths were investigated in Salt Lake City and Denver actually

bore injuries resembling those typically inflicted by humans.

Summarized Denver Post staff writer Sheba R. Wheeler after

Chief Bennett's press conference, held in his capacity as lead

investigator of the Colorado cases, " Puncture wounds, torn skin,

and a lack of visible bleeding found in 10 cats necropsied last week

were caused by attacks from foxes, coyotes, and some domesticated

dogs. Several also were killed by owls. "

Salt Lake County Animal Services chief Temma Martin cited

foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and owls in a similar announcement four

days earlier--375 days after ANIMAL PEOPLE told Martin and Salt Lake

City newspaper reporters that the descriptions of the wounds

indicated that " The predator could be a young coyote, a bobcat, a

raccoon. "

Several cats found dead near a cemetery, ANIMAL PEOPLE said, were

more likely to have been killed by foxes or badgers, and some cats

might have been victims of hawks, owls, and eagles.

Forwarding forensic descriptions from the November 1998

ANIMAL PEOPLE article " Witch hunts & wildlife, " ANIMAL PEOPLE noted

that similar panics develop each summer in urban habitats that

attract wildlife. The panics typically coincide with the emergence

of young foxes and coyotes from their mothers' dens and with the

first hunting by newly fledged raptors. The panics gain momentum

approaching Halloween, as public attention to witches, ghouls,

goblins, and other things that go bump in the night rises toward a

crescendo, then virtually stop each year after Halloween,

distinctly unlike cases involving actual human sadism, Satanism,

and the practice of Santeria sacrifice, which surge just before and

after Christmas.

" Trained to investigate human-inflicted cruelty, " ANIMAL

PEOPLE explained, " police detectives and humane officers typically

have little background in predator behavior. Veterinarians tend to

expect--wrongly--that injuries done by coyotes, the most frequent

wild predator of pets, will resemble those done by domestic dogs.

Forensic evidence is thus misread by sincere people, acting in good

faith, who incite witch-hunts at possible cost to professional

credibility. "

ANIMAL PEOPLE provided similar information to Denver and

Aurora humane society directors, feral cat colony caretakers, and

news media after becoming aware of the Colorado investigation through

local news coverage published on Halloween 2002.

" Of course you were right, " Temma Martin e-mailed to ANIMAL

PEOPLE on July 30, 2003. " I'm sorry our investigation didn't give

us this evidence sooner, but we have been leaning in this direction

for a while now. No one in our area is an expert in analyzing this

kind of case, so we were slow in gathering conclusive evidence. I

do hugely appreciate your information, though, " Martin continued,

" and have mentioned the predator theory in every interview I have

done with the media since last summer. They just didn't choose to

focus on that angle. Unfortunately, it was not until we changed our

lead investigator that we got fully on the right track. "

The case was cracked, Martin said, by Lieutenant Troy Wood.

In June 2003 Wood found a fox den just about where ANIMAL PEOPLE

predicted one might be found on July 22, 2002.

" Hair and feces from the den were sent to a lab in Michigan

for analysis. The results showed cat hair in the feces around the

den and identified the hair on the ground as that of a fox. Lab

tests revealed fox hair beneath the claw of a dead cat found on the

Willowbrook Golf course in late June, " wrote Michael N. Westley of

The Salt Lake Tribune.

Humane investigators around the U.S. subsequently asked

ANIMAL PEOPLE to reprint " Witch hunts and wildlife. "

Letters-to-the-editor indicated that explicit details in the article

upset many readers, and it drew as strong a response when shared

with members of the Society of Environmental Journalists. " Witch

hunts and wildlife " will therefore not be reprinted, but will be

e-mailed or faxed on request, and is accessible on the ANIMAL PEOPLE

web site at <www.animalpeoplenews.org/98/11/witchunts1198.html>.

 

 

Witch hunts & wildlife

(From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1998.)

 

Alleged sadists and Satanists were sought for purportedly

stealing, killing and dismembering cats and dogs in at least nine

states as Halloween 1998 approached. The supposed crimes drew

sensational media coverage, lent emphasis to humane society warnings

against letting pets run at large, and rewards of up to $10,000 were

posted in some cases for information leading to the arrest and

conviction of the killers.

An accurate description of the suspects, however, in all

but a handful of the animal deaths and disappearances, would include

either four legs and a tail, or wings, and none would be either

werewolves or griffons.

Similar panics have developed each summer since the editor of

ANIMAL PEOPLE began tracking them about 10 years ago. They coincide

with the emergence of young foxes and coyotes from their mothers'

dens and with the first hunting by newly fledged raptors. The panics

gain momentum approaching Halloween, as public attention to witches,

ghouls, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night rises

toward a crescendo. The panics virtually stop each year after

Halloween, however, distinctly unlike cases involving actual human

sadism, which surge just before and after Christmas.

Trained to investigate human-inflicted cruelty, police

detectives and humane officers typically have little background in

predator behavior. Veterinarians tend to expect --wrongly--that

injuries done by coyotes, the most frequent wild predator of pets,

will resemble those done by domestic dogs.

Forensic evidence is thus misread by sincere people, acting

in good faith, who incite witch-hunts at possible expense to

professional credibility.

 

Marks of sadists

 

Human sadists tend to disable their victims by blinding them

and/or by tying, breaking, or removing limbs. They then subject

the victims to prolonged torture, often using fire or hot objects.

They tend to focus on the face, especially the eyes, genitalia,

and the anus. They often kill in a ritualistic manner, in which

case the use of props such as candles or crosses may be evident.

Often the remains are crucified. Dismemberments and disembowelings

are characteristically bloody; the blood itself may be used to draw

graffiti or symbols.

If witnesses hear the victim, they will typically hear more

than just a single cry.

Body parts removed from victims may include the ears, tails,

genitals of male animals, and feet or claws. Internal organs of

small animals are rarely if ever removed. Larger animals may be

field-butchered, in essentially the same manner that a hunter

field-butchers a deer.

Knife wounds made by sadists are typically crude, especially

when they hack into bone. Sadists tend to do repetitive, frenzied

stabbing, rather than clean cutting. Sadists do occasionally skin

animals, after the manner of trappers, but--for the safety of the

sadists, who also tend to be cowards--they usually begin only after

the animal is dead and incapable of clawing or biting. Trappers use

several different skinning techniques. They have in common that the

initial incision is made from either a paw or a bodily orifice, and

continues as far as possible in an unbroken line, avoiding any cut

across a marketable portion of the pelt. Even when the pelt is not

to be sold, they tend to make the cuts of habit.

The ANIMAL PEOPLE files on thousands of cruelty cases

indicate none in which a human sadist has been convicted of a crime

against animals that was distinctively different in modus operandi

from either sadistic crimes commonly committed against people, or

routine hunting, trapping, and butchering practices.

 

Predators

 

Predators, in contrast to human sadists, are astonishingly

quick and efficient. Except in instances when predators take

disabled but still living prey back to a den or nest to teach young

how to kill their own food, predation victims tend to make little

sound, if any, rarely even having time to know what hit them.

Predators try to avoid wasting time and energy inflicting uncessary

injuries. Their teeth and claws usually cut more cleanly than any

knife. Predators don't leave much blood behind: that's food. If

interrupted in mid-attack, they run or take flight with the parts

they most want to eat. If able to eat at their leisure, they

consume the richest organs, such as the heart, and leave what they

don't want.

Coyotes and foxes typically attack small prey such as cats

and rabbits from behind and to one side, with a scissors-like jaw

snap to the backbone and midsection which frequently cuts the victim

in half. If startled, they tend to flee with the larger back half

and whatever internal organs come along, leaving the head and

forepaws. These are among the cases most often misread by

investigators, who mistake the discovery of the head as an

indication of ritualistic crime.

Coyotes have an entirely different attack pattern against

prey larger than themselves, such as sheep and deer. Against these

animals, they go for the throat and belly. They then consume the

viscera first.

Cats, both wild and domestic, tend to leave inedible organs

in a neat pile. Cats also have the habit of depositing carcasses,

or parts thereof, at the doorsteps of other cats or humans they are

courting. When cats kill much smaller animals, such as mice, they

consume the whole remains, but when they kill animals of almost

their own size, such as rabbits, they may leave behind heads,

ears, limbs, and even much of the fur.

Tomcats, especially interlopers in another tom's territory,

often kill kittens. Instead of eating them, however,

kitten-killing toms sometimes play with the carcasses as they would

with a mouse, then abandon the remains in an obvious place,

possibly as a sign to both the mother and the dominant tom.

Coyotes, foxes, and both wild and domestic felines often

dispatch prey who survive a first strike with a quick skull-crunching

bite to the head. ANIMAL PEOPLE has resolved several panics over

alleged sadists supposedly drilling mysterious parallel holes in the

skulls of pets by suggesting that the investigators borrow some

skulls of wild predators from a museum, to see how the mystery holes

align with incisors.

Any common predator, but especially coyotes and raptors,

may be involved in alleged " skinned alive " cases. The usual victims

are dogs who--perhaps because parts of their bodies were hidden in

tall grass--are mistaken for smaller prey. The predator holds on

with teeth and/or claws while the wounded victim runs. The result is

a set of sharp, typically straight cuts which investigators often

describe as " filets. " The editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE once saw a cat

pounce and nearly skin a rabbit in such a case, and unable to

intervene in time to prevent the incident, euthanized the victim.

The attack occurred and ended within probably less than 30 seconds.

Raptors tend to be involved in cases where viscera are draped

over cars, porches, trees, signs, and mailboxes: they take

flight with their prey, or with a roadkill they find, and parts

fall out. They return to retrieve what they lose only if it seems

safe to do so.

Birds, especially crows, account for many cases in which

eyes, lips, anuses, and female genitals are removed from fallen

livestock. Sometimes the animals have been killed and partially

butchered by rustlers. Others are victims of coyotes or eagles. The

combined effects of predation and scavenging produce " mutilations "

which may be attributed to Satanists or visitors from outer space,

but except where rustlers are involved, there is rarely anything

more sinister going on than natural predators making a living in

their normal way.

 

--Merritt Clifton

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 9,500 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.]