Texas: Cows Found Dead With Tongues Missing

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office in Texas is actively coordinating with other agencies to find answers after ranchers found six cows dead in suspicious circumstances, including that all had their tongues removed, reports The Epoch Times.

In a statement, the office stated that it found the six cows in separate locations, pastures, and herds, but all in the same condition.

The cows were described as lying on their sides, with the hide around their mouths removed on the side facing upward, via a straight, clean cut, with apparent precision. The meat under the removed side wasn’t touched. Their tongues were removed completely removed. There was no blood spill surrounding any of the cows.

On two of the cows, a circular cut was made removing the anus and the external genitalia, the statement reads.

This circular cut was made with the same precision as the cuts noted around the jaw lines of each cow.

There were no signs of struggle or disturbance found in the grass surrounding the carcasses of the cows. There were no noticeable tracks, including tire tracks, around the area.

The cause of death of all the cows remains undetermined.

No predators or birds would scavenge the remains of the cows for several weeks after their death, so they were left to decay untouched during that time.

The cattle were found along Texas State Highway OSR. Investigators with the sheriff’s office were first alerted by ranchers to one of the deaths— a 6 year old longhorn cross cow—before finding out about the deaths of the other five cows. They included four adult cows and one yearling, found along the area of OSR running into Brazos County and Robertson County.

“Multiple similar incidents have been reported across the United States,” the sheriff’s office noted.

In 2019, five bulls were found dead in Oregon over the course of several days. All of their sex organs and tongues had been removed, and the blood was drained from their bodies.

According to a report from The Associated Press, as in the new case of six cattle, there were neither signs of struggle nor any tracks around the carcasses.

 

Putin’s Most Difficult Demands

According to The Epoch Times, Russian President, Vladimir Putin has laid out several demands for Ukraine including two ‘most difficult issues’ during a phone call with Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan.

The demands can be divided into two parts; Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told several media outlets. 

The first four articles appear to be possible common ground for both sides.

“Basically, there are six topics:

The first is Ukraine’s neutrality, that is, its withdrawal from NATO membership.

Second, disarmament and mutual security guarantees in the context of the Austrian model.

Third, is the process that the Russian side refers to as ‘de-Nazification.’

Fourth, removing obstacles to the widespread use of Russian in Ukraine,

Some progress has been made in the above four topics. However, it’s too early to say there is potentially a full agreement that could be reached because there are two other “most difficult issues.”

Putin put forward two territory-related demands.

Putin would require Ukraine to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and admit the independence of the Donbas, a disputed region in southeastern Ukraine.

Putin recognized the independence of Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, two separatist territories in the Donbas, days before he ordered a full invasion of Ukraine.

Putin reportedly told Erdogan he would hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally about the territory-related issues if the two sides reached common ground on the first four areas.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Ukrainian government and the Russian government for comments.

Zelensky has been asking Putin to talk with him directly after the war broke out. He proposed again on Saturday that the disputes between Russia and Ukraine be solved through meaningful talks.

“Negotiations on peace, on security for us, for Ukraine—meaningful, fair, and without delay—are the only chance for Russia to reduce the damage from its own mistakes,” he said in a statement.

He also warned that the war would cause huge losses to Russia if the two sides don’t reach a timely end to the war.

“Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be so huge that several generations will not be enough to rebound,” he said.

Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, after the efforts to deter war failed.

The United Nations said that, as of March 19, they had recorded 847 deaths and 1,399 injuries of civilians in Ukraine because of Russia’s military action against Ukraine, mostly caused by shelling and airstrikes.

However, the U.N. believes that the actual figures are considerably higher.

Over 3.3 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began, United Nations data show.

 

Missiles land near US Consulate in Iraq

According to The Epoch Times, at least a dozen missiles landed on targets in northern Iraq, hitting an area near the US Consulate in the city of Erbil in the early hours of Sunday, the state news agency quoted the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in Kurdistan as saying.

“Several missiles fell on the city of Erbil,” said Governor Omid Khoshnaw, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) also reported. Erbil is the capital city of the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq.

“No victims or casualties were reported after Erbil blasts,” Saman Barzanji, Health Minister in Iraq’s Kurdistan Province, was cited as saying.

A spokesman for the Kurdish regional government said there were no casualties. A US State Department spokesperson called it an ‘outrageous attack’ but said no Americans were hurt and there was no damage to the US government facilities in Erbil.

No flight interruptions have been reported at Erbil airport.

Footage posted on social media shows multiple explosions. The Epoch Times cannot independently verify the footage.

Sky News Arabia earlier reported that five long-range ballistic missiles targeted the site of a US Consulate currently under construction there. It later reported that 12 ballistic missiles were launched from outside Iraq, citing a statement from the counter-terrorism forces in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

According to the outlet, one of the missiles fell on the headquarters of the Kurdish satellite channel K24, which is affiliated with the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, Masrour Barzani. The building is near the US Consulate in Erbil.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack.

“Seeing reports of Iran-backed attacks on the US consulate in Iraq,” Lisa McClain said on Twitter. “This aggression shows we should absolutely end all Iran Nuclear Deal negotiations now. We must also never buy Iranian oil.”

In the past, US forces stationed at Erbil’s international airport complex have come under fire from rocket and drone attacks that US officials blame on Iran-aligned militia groups. There have been no such attacks for several months.

The last time ballistic missiles were directed at US forces was in January 2020 in retaliation for the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force (IRGC-QF), at Baghdad airport earlier that same month. There were no deaths; however, many US service members suffered head injuries from the strike.

Fars News Agency, which is managed by the IRGC of Iran’s Islamist regime, appeared to link the missile attack to the killing of Soleimani.

Jason Brodsky, Policy Director at United Against Nuclear Iran, wrote on Twitter, “The Soleimani factor in the #Erbil attack tonight is important. Soleimani’s birthday was on March 11, pro-IRGC media are boasting the attack tonight occurred at same time of his death at 1:20 am, the revenge attack on 01/08/20 also occurred at 1:20 am.

“And there are reports the Fateh-110s were used tonight, which also made a cameo appearance in the Soleimani revenge attack on US forces in #Iraq on 01/08/2020. Would note #Iran has also launched Fateh-110s before on #Iraq, e.g. in September 2018 on KDPI HQ in Koya.”