Documents / FOIA release
This part of the FBI Animal Mutilation file covers 1979 to 1980 and includes FBI memoranda, letters to Senator Harrison Schmitt and Senate staff, and press clippings. At the Justice Department's request, the Albuquerque office investigated fifteen animal mutilations on Indian lands in New Mexico, but it did not identify anyone responsible. Kenneth Rommel, a former agent who directed the District Attorney's project, sent flakes from a pickup truck in Taos to the FBI Laboratory, which identified them as white exterior house paint.
“cattle mutilation”11 pages
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## Mutilations ## Probe Disappointing Examination of the first quarterly report submitted in our famous $50,000 cattle mutilation probe would indicate results to date can be described at best disappointing. The worst might be to suggest it's a waste of the taxpayers' money. The report says the investigations into the three cattle deaths (one each in Milaga, Coyote and Tres Piedras) were not complete, although one Albuquerque newspaper quoted Rommel as saying all three were caused by predators. In summary, chief investigator Ken Rommel, at a salary of $25,000 a year, gave interviews to television stations and newspapers, talked with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, confirmed support from a numer of state agencies (which he had already) and checked out three suspected mutilations in his first five weeks on the job. But lo and behold, a mutilation reported in Truchas Saturday morning, only several hours after the animal's death and probably the freshest incident to date, had yet to be checked out by 4 p.m. Tuesday - more than four days later. Our "Desert Fox" hadn't made it to Truchas, the state police hadn't responded, the livestock inspector was not to be seen and the only explanation our district attorney (he's the one who got the $50,000 grant) had was "it was a weekend." That cost about $2,500 in salary plus unknown expenses. We must advise our cattle mutilators that the game is played only five days a week - we rest on weekends. Now fellows, there is a tremendous amount of interest in this subject as evidenced by the turnout for the Albuquerque conference conducted by New Mexico's Sen. Harrison Schmitt. Additional proof is the fact that the feds coughed up $50,000 to look into it. While the public can't expect a solution in the first six weeks of activity, for pete's sake they can expect more than that skimpy one-page report issued last week. And they can expect, for the money they are putting out, for someone to show up to investigate reported mutilations. But as one optimist remarked cheerfully: "Look at it this way; it's only $50,000. It could have been half a million."
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FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 33 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.