I expect most of you missed the following article by Andrew
Langley in the "Rural Diary" series in Weekend
Telegraph, January 18th 1992. Langley claims that:
"The other day I was out looking for mushrooms. It was a murky, lowering, homicidal kind of afternoon, when the rooks and the jays seem to sneer at you. I was crossing a steep hillside [A-HA !!] when I saw the corpse. Right in the middle of the field lay a dutiful mother, struck down as she went about her lawful business.
It was a vixen, on the face of it nothing to get excited about. There is no shortage of foxes in Wiltshire, and one should not be startled to find a dead one ...
But this fox was not simply dead. She was squashed flat, crushed with considerable force and left, outspread and moth-eaten, like the carpet in the old dug-out bar of Broadley's. Only the grinning head was intact.
So what ? You may think. Wild animals are flattened by cars and lorries in their thousands every year. Not, though, in the centre of a field, at least a mile away from the nearest lane.
I have pondered on this mystery ever since. It seems a murder singular enough to stretch to the Great Detective himself. How did this fox die ? Who or what had squashed her ? The only beast big enough to do it would be a cow. And what self-respecting fox is going to sit motionless while a bovine posterior descends upon her ?
Perhaps the vixen had been run over by a joyrider in a combine harvester. Perhaps she had been dropped from a helicopter at 2,000 ft. Perhaps she had been struck amidships by a hunk of frozen urine jettisoned from a passing jumbo jet. Over to you Sherlock...."
Well, what a strange tale. But readers of The Circular
(vol 3, no 1, page 25) will recall that Bob Kingsley published
the following information, which was originally published in Warminster
UFO News, Nos 14/15:-
"Don Julius, an investigator for the Westmorland UFO Study Group turned up a report on July 18th, 1972, of a dead dog, found in strange circumstances.
The collie was found lying on its back and all the hairs on the dog's body had been removed except for a few. There was no evidence of any sort of 'attack' and the body was found about 40 feet from a circular area where the grass was whipped in counter- clockwise direction, although some grass lay in a clockwise direction. This circular area was 6 feet in diameter. Power lines are in the area, the nearest being about 400 feet from where the dog was found.
The dog had been seen alive on July 13th At about the same time a neighbour reported their two cats had disappeared. It was noted that no scavengers had touched the dog's body which had been in the area five days. It is assumed the dog had been dead that long, as it had a friendly nature and the 'Smiths' do not feel it would have stayed away from home long. There had been rain during this period and the investigators could find no tracks near the body."
So, what do we make of this ? A dead
dog near an area of swirled grass ?? Peculiar to say the least.
But in the May 1993 issue of MUFON UFO Journal, Michael
Strainic has written a fascinating account of a porcupine that
had been discovered "squashed flat" in a crop circle at
Milestone, Saskatchewan. According to Strainic:
"... the animal was found on top of the flattened (yet still undamaged) wheat"
and that despite this apparent lack of damage to the wheat the
porcupine was flattened "in situ - to approximately a
one-inch diameter".
Now I have to admit that I'm not very good with biology, but
according to Strainic some porcupines weigh in at 22-27 kgs
(50-60 pounds). This suggests that this unfortunate animal was
squashed flat by some tremendous force - perhaps by a steam
roller?
The Milestone "circle" was, in fact, three roughly
triangular areas containing anti-clockwise swirls and measuring
63 by 22 feet in total. Inside each rectangle was a central area
of standing wheat - similar to those recalled by Paul Germany in
the 1930s in East Anglia (see CW9, pages 26-29).
Strainic's report concludes that:
"... some weeks after the event, evidence testifying to the passing of the porcupine was still quite visible. The trace marks which were left on the ground suggest the following sequence of events: the animal, while attending to typical porcupine affairs, was suddenly, and without any warning, caught up in whatever force or mechanism is responsible for the creation of the circles. At what point the porcupine actually shuffled off his mortal coil is impossible to say. But it is apparent that it was dragged - or pushed, or manoeuvred, or perhaps had even dragged itself - through the mud and wheat from one corner of the formation, a total of somewhere on the order of 40+ feet, to its final resting place."
"The porcupine was discovered lying on top of the flattened grain. The quills of the porcupine were arranged in such a way as to suggest that they had been swirled by the same force that had affected the wheat. Quills and wheat were intertwined. As well, the porcupine had been pushed right down into the mud - there was mud on the animal and there were quills and wheat left in the mud. The mud, including that with porcupine parts, was highly compressed and completely dried out. The mud was so dry and so compacted that pieces of it could not be broken by hand."
This bizarre scene was discovered by Joe Rennick, the owner of
the farm, and after taking photos of the porcupine Rennick
disposed of the carcass. However, it was soon learnt that a
similar event occurred in 1989 at Estevan (also in Saskatchewan),
when the skeletal remains of a porcupine was discovered in a
charred or perhaps oily circular patch of flattened wheat. This
earlier case attracted sufficient publicity that the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police conducted a somewhat inconclusive
investigation. There was a suspicion by the RCMP that some
kind of "cult sacrifice" had taken place, but this was
never proven.
So, now we have a squashed fox, found in a
field miles from nowhere, a flayed dog found 40 feet from a
swirled area, a porcupine found squashed flat inside some swirled
rectangular areas, and the skeleton of a porcupine found inside
an oily blackened patch of flattened (but no necessarily swirled)
wheat. Odder and odder ! But what's this I find in Ted
Philips' Physical Trace Catalogue:
Case 249, November 1966. U.S.A., Gallipolis, OHIO.
William Watson's German Shepherd dog disappeared and was found a
week later in the centre of an isolated field. The knee-high
grass around the dog's body was pressed flat in a perfect circle
20 foot in diameter. Every bone in the body was crushed, no blood
in evidence. (John Keel)
Case 293sp: September 7th, 1967. U.S.A., Alamosa,
Colorado. A horse was found dead, the hide removed from the neck
and head. No blood found on the animal or in the area. 15 round
imprints were arranged in a circle nearby. A 3 ft high bush had
been depressed to within 10 inches of the ground. The depressed
area was about 20 ft. in diameter. (AP and Personal Files)
Case 529, July 13th, 1972. U.S.A., Greensburg, PA. A
collie dog was found lying on its back, all its hair removed. The
dog was 40 ft from a circular area where the grass was swirled in
a counter- clockwise direction. The area was 6 ft in diameter.
(Skylook)
So, we now have 7 cases involving squashed or flayed animals
dating back to 1966, all but one of which were associated with
unusual circular ground traces and three of which were actually
inside the "circle". Now how on earth do we try to
rationalise something as this?
In Crop Circles, A Mystery Solved (page 148-9) we
discussed a peculiar case from Shropshire when a dog was seen by
two witnesses to run into a strange luminous cloud. The cloud was
15 metres or so in diameter and was described as 'like a yellow
fog'. The cloud was rotating like a whirlwind and was accompanied
by a rushing wind-like noise as it disturbed nearby leaves and
dust. The witnesses noticed a horrible sulphurous smell (which is
a common feature of unusual vortex cases in Corliss' sourcebooks)
as well as feeling their hair standing on end (a sure sign of an
electro-static field). The dog ran into the glow and completely
disappeared. Then the cloud dispersed and the dog was recovered.
It was soaking and hot to the touch. The dog's eyes were red and
bloodshot and it was panting heavily. Although the elderly dog
recovered from this event it died less than six months later -
probably from old age rather than the event itself. CERES'
David Reynolds later showed that the event provably occurred
downwind of the nearest hill - a 300 metre high ridge. This, of
course, is a classic lee-slope situation.
Now it seems to me that despite the satanic overtones we have
a series of potentially important events. In my opinion these
events have several possible explanations:
Explanation 1: Errors in Reporting
All these events have been erroneously reported by writers who
saw what they wanted to see but missed other clues which were
capable of explaining the events.
Explanation 2: Hoax !
All these animals were flattened or flayed by hoaxers who also
decided to create nearby circular ground traces because they all
shared the same archetypal motif of what UFOs are supposed to do
(kill animals and leave circular traces).
Explanation 3: Animal Sacrifice !
Some previously unknown "cult" has spread around the
world where the creation of swirled ground traces and the
sacrifice of unfortunate local wildlife plays an important role
in their unpleasant rituals. Given the current outbreak of horse
mutilations in England (where at least a dozen people have been
questioned or cautioned by the Police) this scenario is not
entirely without supporting evidence.
Explanation 4: Vortex !
Some unusual atmospheric vortex mechanism descended in such a
way that it squashed the animals, or sucked their
hide/skin/quills from their bodies, and left the circles behind
(perhaps in a subsequent, less-energetic phase ?). This could be
a mechanism similar to that in the Shropshire case, where the dog
was fortunate enough to survive (the strange cloud was positioned
over a hedge so no permanent trace was produced).
Now I'm not going to leap before I look here but any
combination of answers may be possible. If readers have any views
on these peculiar cases write to the editorial
address on page 36 and have your say.
PF.