UFO HUNTERS - Alien Harvest

History Channel - Original Air Date: 4/19/09

So, what's up with cattle mutilations?  Are they, as Bill suggests, something sinister -- UFOs, government plots, cults, etc.? Or are they, as Kevin (and skeptics) note, predation of cattle who have died naturally?  As the team sets out, news comes of a "fresh" kill.  This cow is still in the field, and its initial mutilation is missing eyes and tongue.  A local investigator calls the tongue being removed a "cut," and the rancher suggests birds did not remove the eyeball.  These are, however, suppositions after the fact.  The "investigator" says that the perpetrators came back on successive nights to get more parts.  (However, the missing parts do seem to be the "choice" morsels for predators.)  And the rancher's "mysterious" loss of 26 cattle in 29 years (or was it the other way around?), don't seem like an unusual loss of livestock.  Plus, since the predation happened on three consecutive nights, I wonder why -- if this was so unusual -- no one seems to have staked out the carcass.  Pat notes no signs of people; the expert counters that he sees no signs of predators.  So, naturally Bill suggests UFOs, or maybe black helicopters.  (Notice that at this point, merely 10 minutes into the show, we're already deep into UFO Hunters' usual fishing expedition.)  Pat points out that there are, as usual, several military bases nearby -- which could account for helicopters or strange lights.  The investigator then claims to have followed a "moving" piece of metal in the cow's body that he followed with a metal detector -- he believes this was a "moving implant," trying to evade detection.  (And now, one commercial break into the show, we've moved from fishing to the usual science fiction.)  Bill connects this to the show's previous (unconvincing) Human Implant show.

A cult researcher says the slaughter does not resemble the work of a cult.  Since they've "ruled out" predation and cults, the only possible explanations must be a UFO.  They find a local video of a cigar-shaped UFO (the usual indistinct blur), and that seems to cinch it.  Now we're down the rabbit hole of wild speculation with little or no chance of coming back.  The theories that come out are the usual mutilation storieswith no real evidence.  And we get plenty of weird ranch stories, too.  Sensibly, a local sheriff says "I can tell you what it isn't, but I can't tell you what it is."  He discounts predators, cults, occult, government, and other explanations.  He, too, has seen a UFO, and thinks there may be a connection between the lights and the mutilations.  As Pat notes, the one thing missing is actual physical evidence.  They talk to an investigator with years of experience who has seen three geometric impressions near a mutilation, but not actually associated with it.  Bill connects this to other indentations in UFO stories.  But, sadly, despite the report, there seem to be no pictures or impressions of this supposed "evidence."  Finally, the team sets up a stakeout on the dead cow to see if they can catch the culprit.  They bring a Fleer infrared camera and a night vision scope to their stakeout, but they find nothing.  "There is no alien harvest," Kevin concludes, "but it's a great smokescreen."  (For the government.)  Pat thinks that it's part of an alien project of some type, being chased by government helicopters.  Bill thinks it's some kind of government-alien conspiracy.  But, again, there is no evidence.  Two weeks later, after the show has left, the same rancher has another mutilation -- 27 since 1991.  Bill concludes the phenominon is real, and it is ongoing.