Editing Cattle mutilation (section)

===Natural causes===
[[Image:Blowfly-head2.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Blowflies have been implicated as possible scavengers involved in making livestock carcasses look "mutilated."]]
While many unconventional explanations have been put forward to explain cattle mutilations, a variety of scientists, veterinary workers, and knowledgeable observers (including farmers and other agricultural workers) have suggested more conventional ideas, most of which revolve around the hypothesis that "mutilated" animals died of natural causes and were subjected to known terrestrial phenomena – including the action of predators, parasites, and scavengers.<ref name="sceptdict">Carroll Robert T, [http://www.skepdic.com/cattle.html Skeptic's Dictionary: Cattle Mutilation] (September 2006)</ref>

Missing or mutilated mouth, lips, anus, and genitalia are explained as:
* Contraction of missing/damaged areas due to dehydration.
* The actions of small scavengers and burrowing parasites seeking to enter or consume the body in areas where skin is at its thinnest.

Missing/mutilated eyes and soft internal organs are explained as:
* The action of carrion feeding insects such as [[Calliphoridae|blowflies]], and opportunistic or carrion birds such as [[vulture]]s, which are known to direct themselves toward an animal's eyes, and to enter the body through the openings of the mouth and anus in order to feed on soft internal organs.

Absence of blood is explained as:
* Blood pooling in the lowest points in the body where it will break down into its basic organic components.
* Blood that is external to the body, or in the area of a wound being consumed by insects or reduced by solar desiccation.

Surgical incisions in the skin are explained as:
* Tears in the skin created when it is stretched by postmortem bloat and/or as dehydration causes the animal's hide to shrink and split, often in linear cuts.
* Incisions caused by scavengers or predators, possibly exacerbated by the above.

The hypothesis that natural phenomena account for most mutilation characteristics has been validated by a number of experiments, including one cited by long-time [[scientific skepticism|scientific skeptic]] [[Robert Todd Carroll|Robert T. Carroll]], conducted by Washington County (Arkansas) Sheriff's Office. In the experiment, the body of a recently deceased cow was left in a field and observed for 48 hours. During the 48 hours, postmortem bloating was reported to have caused incision-like tears in the cow's skin that matched the "surgical" cuts reported on mutilated cows, while the action of blowflies and maggots reportedly matched the soft tissue damage observed on mutilated cows.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Experiments have also been conducted to compare the different reactions of surgically cut hide/flesh and predated hide/flesh to natural exposure.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Histological Changes in Bovine Skin Exposed to Natural Environmental Conditions |last1=Onet |first1=George E. |last2=Kelleher |first2=Colm |year=1997 |publisher=[[National Institute for Discovery Science]] |url=https://www.noufors.com/Documents/onet.pdf |place=[[Las Vegas, NV]]}}</ref> They demonstrated pronounced differences between surgical cuts and non surgical cuts over time.

Some ranchers have disputed the scientific "natural causes hypothesis" on the grounds that the mutilated animals often fall outside of the normal categories of natural deaths by predation or disease. One reason cited is that the animals were healthy and showed no sign of disease prior to death, and were large and strong enough not to be a likely target for a predator. In some cases, ranchers have reported that the mutilated cattle were among the healthiest and strongest animals in their herd.<ref name="pbc">[http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1153566001/17 Costilla County officials probe cattle mutilation] {{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20070801062328/http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1153566001/17 |date=2007-08-01 }} (July 22, 2006), Pueblo Chieftain</ref>