The cows that didn't come home

The mystery of the dead cows (14 altogether) that have washed ashore in Denmark and Sweden during the last couple of weeks now seems to have been solved. There has been a lot of speculation about the case in the media, as the cows had their back legs tied together, the abdomen cut open, and their ears cut off. 

Closer examination of some of the dead animals only served to deepen the mystery, as they seemed to be very high quality animals, and at least two of them seemed to have been killed with a bolt gun.

A few days ago, an eye-witness came up with the crucial information that cracked the case. This man is the nautical equivalent of a trainspotter, and a couple of days after Christmas he had been out for a walk along the Kiel Channel in Germany. That day he saw a Lebanese ship loaded with cattle sailing through the channel. 

Police have later been able to track the ship to a Russian harbor where the ship was refused permission to land because they had about a dozen dead animals on board. The ship had been through some rough weather, and it is possible the animals were killed by the ship tossing in the waves or had to be put down, because they panicked and possibly hurt themselves in the process.

The theory is that the ship sailed back into the Baltic, and simply dumped the cows. The back legs were tied together to allow a crane to pick them up, the abdomen was cut open probably because the crew on the ship thought it would make them sink, and the ears (eartags) were cut off for the captain to be able to prove he had had the animals on board.

Unfortunately for him, dumping anything in the Baltic is illegal, so the authorities in Denmark, Sweden and Germany are now waiting for the ship to try and leave the Baltic again. And then it will probably be stopped, and the crew and captain prosecuted.

Here is a link to a danish tv-report on the cows.

http://lokalavisen.dk/section/xweb-tv/&id=7524

Cthulhu awakes! - or perhaps not...

During the last few days, this rather impressive photograph have started doing the rounds on the internet. It was sent to me by FB friend Margit From, who had found it on the website of The Lightly Braised Turnip, which we all know is a bastion of truth. They basically claim, that an enormous squid has beached itself on the coast of California, and that it was a result of radioactive pollution from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.

Impressive picture one must say, although the shadow under the creatures looks a bit iffy to say the least. Maybe because this squid had already beached itself in october 2013 in Spain. On that occasion it was considerably smaller, although the photographer by creative use of forced perspective did his best to make it look monstrous. This picture can be seen on the www.live.science.com.

All in all, a nice piece of photoshop work - but thanks to eagly-eyed FB contact Martin Relsted, I can also show you the original picture the squid was superimposed upon. In this case a picture from a whale-stranding in Chile in November 2011. This can be found, on among others the website of english.cntv.cn. This shows the roped off carcass of a dead whale and a large group of spectators, corresponding exactly to what we see around the monstrous squid.

So, a fake if ever there was one. And although I can only agree with the underlying sentiment, that the radioactive pollution from the Fukushima plant in an environmental disaster, this is not the way to highlight the problem!!

COW MADNESS

Strange things are a-foot (or should that be a-hoof) in little old Denmark (and in neighbouring Sweden for that matter) at the moment. 2014 have started out with a bona-fide mystery. It is not strictly cryptozoological as such, but it is rater weird.

Within the last week or so 11 dead cows have washed ashore in Denmark (3 animals) and in southern Sweden (8 animals). This is strange enough in itself, but upon closer examination of said cows, things started to take a rather sinister turn. All the cows had their back legs tied together, the abdomen had been cut open, and in case of the Swedish cows, their ears had been cut off.

People of a more paranoid persuasion have of course started muttering dark sentiments about secret government experiments, elements of the more extreme fringes of the UFO-fraternity have already started insisting on sightings of strange lights in the sky around the time of the cow findings, whereas Danish and Swedish authorities are considering whether it is a case of somebody, perhaps a ship in the Baltic, getting rid of sick or diseased cows and trying to cover their tracks by removing ears tags and so forth. They haven’t been completely thorough – one of the cows found in Denmark still had its ears – and a tag, so work is now being done trying to trace this tag. It is a kind not known in Denmark, so the theory is, it is Russian, or perhaps from some of the Baltic countries.

The Danish cows are to be examined closely at the Agricultural University in Copenhagen, where the experts hope to be able to ascertain the couse of death, and determine whether the cows had some kind of disease that would make it for example illegal to export or import them.