In the fall of 1973, there were about 40 dozen counties in north-central Kansas, most of them occurring along the U.S., which run north Kansas into Newbraska. Nebraska also had some mutilated moos. Kansas sheriff departments, the highway patrol and state bureau of investigation seemed baffled, as did the victimized cattle ranchers. The ranchers were used to the nocturnal depredations of predators, but they had never seen anything like the surgical precisiion
and methodical discrimination with which these animals had been chopped up:some with their ears, and tongue and, say, an eye removed with a swish of a tail, their wudders and patch of neck  flresh cut cleany away; and nearly all of them with the anus and genitals neatly excised.
The removal of cow vulvas and bull dongs caused speculation that weirdos were involved. Suspicion fell upon one or more of the following: (1) the irresponsible shenanigans of those great scapegoats. the hippies; (2) sex deviates practicing bull-dong/cow-vulva atrocities; or (3) the rites of some religious cultists of a devil-worshiping nature.Many authorities demurred. Dr. Harry Anthony director of the Kansas State University veternaian labratory,stated in the late 1973 that four out of the nine mutilated animals that the lab had examined apparently had died of a cattle disease called blacking: the Kansas state brands commissioner declared that 99 
percent of the deaths of animals that had been mutilated had been caused by natural factors. Such statements triggered a bit of courage in law-enforcement circles in the 12 Kansas counties affected with many officials maintaining their belief that humans were involved.
 There were several bits of evidence that pointed away from predators. There was the absence of blood and footprints, for exampe. One cow was even found in a large mudhole, but still there were no tracks. Then there was a peculiar absence of dangling guts and scattered hunks of flesh (predators do not read Emily Post).Also, though many animals were found in secluded areas,
others were found near barns or a few feet from sleeping
farmers' windows-closer to civilization than predators usually roam. And then there were the helicopters. Helicopters without filed flight plans were sighted quite often in the afflicted counties, sometimes hovering above cattle pens. But authoriities were not able to catch the choppers or to locate their landing refueling areas. One of the theories was that a helicopter-barne rustling operation was going on, but when it was discovered that all that was being rustled were eyeballs, genitals, milk sacs, and aphinciers, that theory collapied.
Then there was a rumor, apparently without foundation, that the helicopters were part of a secret exercise out of Fort Riley, Kansas.