Hereferd cow
© Unknown
Windell Gillis found something very unusual when he went to check on his cows on Saturday, April 14.

He found a four month old bull calf dead in the field. Gillis noticed that the calf had damage to one of its eyes. Then, he noticed something very unusual. A patch of hide approximately five inches across in a perfect circle was missing from the calf.

The circle of hide had been removed with surgical precision, so much so, that there wasn't even any bleeding.

Gillis had never seen anything like this in his 33 years of raising cattle. He called the Dodge County Sheriff's Department and a deputy came and investigated the incident. Gillis decided to look on the internet and see if there were and more type incidents like this that had happened anywhere else. He found where cows had been mutilated in several other states out west and also on a farm in Hall County Georgia in 2009.

There, an almost exact incident that happened with one of their bull calves. They also had another cow mutilates just two weeks before.

Cattle mutilation is a phenomenon that has been reported across the country at least since the 1960s. It even has its own name: "bovine excision."

Despite in-depth government investigations worthy of the 1990s TV show X-Files, there has never been a clear explanation. While theories have ranged from bizarre blood-drinking cults to extraterrestrials, some believe the mutilations are actually done by small animals or insects who eat away parts of the body but leave most intact.

For now, the sheriff's department and Gillis are keeping an open mind and just hoping to find out exactly how the death and mutilation of the calf occurred.

Gillis is also offering a $1,000.00 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible. The Gillis farm is located on the Hawkinsville Highway.

If anyone has any information about the incident, they are asked to call 478-231-8236 or the Dodge County Sheriff's office at 478-374-8131.