Sheep targeted in bizarre case of animal theft and mutilation

PORT LAVACA, TX

The Daggs' family farm in Port Lavaca is surrounded by a fence so you'd think the animals would be safe there, but investigators believe someone is sneaking in and doing the unthinkable.

"Everything, the fence, the gates, everything is to keep dogs, coyotes, and predators out," farmer Wayne Daggs said.

Daggs thought his beloved sheep were safe.

"That first male down there. When I found him castrated, it hurt me very bad, 'cause I had gotten really attached to him," Daggs said.

Twenty-one sheep have gone missing since this spring. Daggs found six of them mutilated in the grass. The attacks were so brutal, we can't air the images on TV.

"Animals were disappearing, and some, I found dead. I'd find one or two dead. One or two had been carried off and that went on and on," Daggs said.

He says every disappearance, mutilation shares one characteristic.

"Around those animals, you don't see where somebody was there. It was just like they were just dropped there," he said.

"This is not a predator animal. This is a very meticulous, very thought-out process that somebody is doing this," said Bobby Vickery with the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office.

Vickery is the lead investigator on the case.

"There was no footprints, there was no crossing marks, there was no evidence whatsoever to lead us in any direction," Vickery said.

He says his office has seen something similar before, about 40 years ago.

"There were, in the 70s some incidents like that where there was an actual cult, satanic worship, that had been going that dealt with animal mutilation," Vickery said.

The sheriff's office says the biggest fear is that these incidents are a gateway crime and whoever is responsible could move onto targeting people.

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