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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# MUTILATION OF ANIMALS ON INDIAN LANDS IN NEW MEXICO TAFOYA, Chief of Police, Jicarilla Apache Tribe, disclosed similar information, i.e. the reports of unexplained dead animals were in 1978, and although they were surrounded by suspicious circumstances, there was no evidence to positively determine that the animals had been mutilated. In neither case had evidence been preserved for examination, nor were there any complete reports of investigation done regarding the deaths. The Albuquerque FBI Office has discussed the possibility of animal mutilations with law enforcement officers in New Mexico, including MEL SEDILLO, JR., Investigator, New Mexico Livestock Board, Albuquerque, New Mexico, who has examined numerous animals which had been reported as being mutilated. Investigator SEDILLO said that in each instance his examination showed that the animals had been attacked by predators. Since the conference of April 20, 1979, the Albuquerque FBI Office has received a voluminous amount of correspondence from interested parties who have expounded their theories regarding this subject. Copies of this information have been furnished to KENNETH M. ROMMEL for his assistance. On January 15, 1980, KENNETH M. ROMMEL advised his office has pursued numerous investigative leads regarding the possible mutilation of animals in New Mexico. He said that to date, his investigative unit has determined that none of the reported cases has involved what appear to be mutilations by other than common predators. ROMMEL said he has travelled to other states and conferred with investigators in those areas regarding mutilations, and to date has received no information which would justify the belief that any animals have been intentionally mutilated by human beings. ROMMEL added that regarding all the dead animals he has examined, the damage to the carcasses has always been consistent with predator action. The Albuquerque FBI Office has alerted law enforcement officials who have jurisdiction over Indian lands in New Mexico concerning the March 6, 1979, authorization for the Albuquerque FBI Office to investigate the mutilations of animals on Indian lands in New Mexico. These law enforcement officials have advised that they would immediately notify the Albuquerque FBI Office in the event there are any new occurrences of suspected animal mutilations on Indian lands. On January 15, 1980, this matter was discussed with Assistant U. S. Attorney RICHARD J. SMITH, U. S. Attorney's Office, Albuquerque. Assistant U. S. Attorney SMITH said that in his opinion there is no Federal interest in continuing an investigation in this matter in the absence of further reports of acts of
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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.