Something’s Savaging Lee Straw’s Sheep

Something’s killing Lee Straw’s sheep.

Most of his flock is kept safe on remote islands, just off the rugged New England coast. But many of the rest, over the past week, have been slaughtered by a mysterious and vicious killer.

If this were most parts of rural North America, dead livestock would just be part of the cycle of life. But in Maine — where Stephen King-approved dark imagery covers every unexplained and bloody happening — the twin mass killings of Straw’s flock is quickly becoming the stuff of legend and speculation.

Last Sunday [June 3, 2007], the frustrated herder stacked the carcasses of more than a dozen dead sheep along the road near a Wiscasset, Maine, ranch. Straw’s animals had been allowed to graze and keep the grass trimmed and fertilized for a free stay on a local man’s spread.Things were largely peaceful on the coastal land, until last weekend’s reckoning.Sunday morning, 14 animals were found bitten to death — the killer or killers making their way over a one-metre-high electric fence.Local officials quickly ruled out coyotes, because only a couple of the bodies showed signs of being eaten.They were simply chewed up and left.Straw believes domestic dogs attacked at night, though no one heard or saw the predators.”I wanted to show people what happened — that if it was their dog, to lock them up — so I put the (bodies) along the road,” the 52-year-old rancher explains, on the phone from his home in Newcastle.Sunday morning’s attack brought back memories of finding 17 of his sheep dead in 2004. What animals were responsible then is still a mystery.If the latest attack was hard to stomach, the fact that whatever it was that killed the 15 came back the next night to finish the terrible job has made Straw livid.By Monday morning [June 4, 2007], another 14 sheep were found slaughtered.The survivors of Sunday’s attack were checked on into the night, but some time after 1 a.m. on Monday, almost all were taken down in the same gruesome way as their brothers and sisters. Other than the sheep who are on the islands, only two members of the original flock survive.Locals found the dead animals — including many pregnant ewes — slaughtered throughout their neighbourhood.Hair samples were taken from the scene, but no results have come back.The local department of inland fisheries and wildlife also thinks a group of dogs is likely responsible — memories of Stephen King’s famous Cujo, where an average Maine pet becomes a blood-thirsty killer.Others have even more novel ideas. Among the fraternity of those who believe the state harbours more than its share of secrets and unique beasts, some are pointing an accusing finger at a breed of a ghostlike black panther rumoured for years to be living and hunting in solitude.”Local officials always quickly … assume it’s dogs,” says Loren Coleman, a Portland, Maine, an author and North America’s most recognized “cryptozoologist,” who for years has tracked animals which are only hypothesized to exist.The fact that these were large kills may suggest something more alarming, he adds.”They weren’t eaten; they were simply killed (for fun).”

Internet chat sites and specialized “crypto” web sites have been closely following the story. For them, the phantom black panther is an obvious suspect, having been spotted around livestock kills in past years.

They’re not so sure one of the big cats will ever be caught. But rancher Straw, cursing dogs for bringing his meek and mild animals down, is convinced the truth is out there — likely asleep on someone’s living-room carpet.”I think we’ll get the animal responsible. I think we’ll find out what killed them.”by Thane Burnett, “Counting sheep a nightmare – Flock savaged in Cujo-esque attack,” Toronto Sun, Friday, June 8, 2007

With regard to the phrase “for fun,” which was added by the Toronto Sun reporter, this was not mentioned by me. Motivation was neither implied nor noted. Why an animal, known or unknown, might kill 29 out of 30 sheep in a flock over two nights is something that I would not be able to get into the mind of the as-yet-unidentified animal or animals and place a a reason on such a behavior, especially in the early stages of this investigation, if ever.

Coincidentially, while the above was happening in Lincoln County, Maine, other “Lincoln” (name game alert) sheep killers were being discussed at the same time in the media, during this second week in June 2007.

In Wyoming, there’s been a new call to figure out if the return of wolverines is behind the killing of sheep and other livestock with new incidents that are within a context of others:

In 2004, a midnight call to Game and Fish wardens led to the discovery of a dead wolverine on State Highway 30 near Kemmerer. The discovery caused quite a stir in the small Lincoln County town and surrounding communities. The animal was eventually mounted by a Green River taxidermist and is now used for educational purposes at the Green River regional office.

In 1998, a wolverine reportedly killed several sheep east of Buffalo and was sighted by an area rancher. And in 1996, a wolverine was caught in a trapper’s snare set at a site about 20 miles north of Cheyenne.Star Tribune, Casper, Wyoming, June 6, 2007

Meanwhile in Alabama, the killers being blamed as the source of sheep attacks there is one heard the most often, in some cases because it’s truly the source of the rampages:

Animal control in Talladega County is still in question. The issue stems from problems Lincoln residents are having with dog packs attacking and killing animals. Last month dogs killed a foal and attacked a turkey at one residence. At another Lincoln residence, dogs killed eight sheep and attacked a goat.Daily Home, Talledega County, Alabama, June 7, 2007.

What is going on in several Lincoln locations in the USA, however, may be anything but mundane.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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