March 10, 1997 ó 10:00 AM: Two ranchers on a remote pasture in NE Utah began the daily tagging of calves born the night before. The weather was bright and sunny, temperatures in the 50s. The ranchers estimated they tagged and weighed the 87-pound animal about 100 yards from the fence line. There was a ring of snow surrounding the pasture where they tagged the animal.
After tagging the animal, they walked about 300 yards west to another newborn animal and went through the process of weighing and tagging that animal. The two were accompanied by their blue heeler dog. About 10:45 AM, the heeler began to growl and act strangely with a focus on the area they had just left.
March 10 ó 10:45 AM: The blue heeler began snarling in earnest and arching his back. Without warning, the animal ran west across the fields, away from the direction he had been looking. The heeler was never seen again.
March 10 ó 10:50 AM: The rancher and his wife, looking back, then noticed a grown cow running frantically back and forth towards the fence line while dragging her leg. Both then walked back to investigate. The rancher reported seeing the recently tagged newborn calf lying eviscerated in the field, close to where it had been tagged about 45 minutes previously. In a 45-minute period in daylight, 100 yards from any cover, with the rancher about 200-300 yards away, the calf had most of its body weight removed, including entrails, and appeared to have been placed carefully on the ground with no blood present on or near the animal.
