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| EPSO photo: Former El Paso County Reserve Deputy Sheriff, Chuck Zukowski |
tucsoncitizen - A UFO investigator in Colorado has been terminated from his volunteer deputy post following a horse mutilation investigation.
Back in November 2010, Fox31 News in Denver posted an article about a strange horse mutilation incident at the Schneider family ranch in El Paso County, Colorado. The family found two of their horses dead and badly mutilated on their ranch last August. After the discovery, the family filed a report with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department and called in paranormal investigator, Chuck Zukowski, to search for answers.
The horses were discovered with their throats slit and chests cut open. The genitals, tongues, and eyes of the horses were removed. The family stated that there were no footprints around the horses and no blood evident. Since El Chupacabra, humans, predators and satanic cults would leave footprints, Zukowski blamed UFOs, according to the report by Fox31 news.
Zukowski’s findings, as reported by bloggers and the media, were contradictory to the official findings of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department, for whom Zukowski served in a volunteer capacity for for 8 years.
Following the posting of the original post in the Tucson Citizen in November, Zukowski blamed ‘bad journalism’ on the parts of Fox31 and the Tucson Citizen for misrepresenting his statements. He stated that the family and area ranchers believed that the horse mutilations were alien or military-related, but that his written findings always conclude as “unknown death”. Zukowksi referred to his publicly posted investigation findings for clarification, which were considered prior to the November posting. However, the statements attributed to Zukowski, as reported by Fox31, were included in the Tucson Citizen post, clearly attributing Zukiowski’s statements to the interview with Fox31.
The official findings from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department pointed to predators as causing the demise of the horses. Zukowski’s publicly available online report and statements made to the news media, does not come to the identical conclusion, which contributed to his termination
Zukowski’s termination letter from the department states among other things:
“The termination is a result of you conducting paranormal and unidentified flying object investigations into animal mutilations, and then publicly contradicting and being critical of official Sheriff’s Office investigations in a public forum. Although you have claimed not to have represented yourself as a Sheriff’s Office Reserve Deputy, the media reports allude to you as “volunteer El Paso County Sheriff’s Department deputy.” This adversarial position, without having full knowledge of the information gathered by detectives, is unacceptable.”
Zukowski told NewsFirst5.com in an interview: “I know in the letter it says that I contradicted their statement, but I didn’t contradict them per se. Where I mentioned El Paso County Sheriff’s Department was wrong, I’ve never, ever done that.”
A fresh piece of information included in the Tucson Citizen‘s post from November, was the fact that Zukowski served as a volunteer deputy for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department. This information was publicly available in his bio page, on his UFO investigation website, to outline his relevant experience. Although the information is now updated to read: “a former Reserve Deputy Sheriff with El Paso County Sheriff’s Department, Colorado”.
Ten days after the post on the Tucson Citizen, an article posted at the website thehorse.com, also identified Zukowski as a reserve deputy for the department. Zukowski told News5 that he never represented himself to the author as a reserve deputy.
Whether the information of Zukowski’s volunteer post with the department was found on the Tucson Citizen or Zukowski’s public website, was not stated in thehorse.com article.
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Chuck Zukowski's response:
ufonut - Throughout the course of the television show, The X-Files, agent Fox Mulder was continually threatened with dismissal from the FBI due to his passionate and serious pursuit of supernatural phenomena, paranormal events and government conspiracy. This pop-culture series made clear that our government and law enforcement agencies around the country are not open, philosophically or intellectually, to take seriously the field of paranormal investigation.
One thing I pride myself in, is being honest about my investigations. Now I want to be honest about an event which developed not only from one of my investigations, but circumstances which arise due to media attention I get.
The following blog is about what happens when a person (me) challenges authority and now deals with the outcome. (I deal with the outcome by telling you.) At no time do I mean any disrespect to the fine men and women who work for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department, I’m simply stating the circumstances which involved me and now letting the readers (you) decide if I made the right decision.
Chuck Zukowski
On February 9th 2011, two deputies from the El Paso County Sheriff’s department stopped by my home and relieved me of my badge, gun and ID. Most people visiting my website had no idea I was a Reserve (volunteer) deputy, since I’ve never blogged about it. My Reserve title was posted on my bio because I was proud of it.
The following are two segments from the termination letter handed to me.
First segment:
“The termination is a result of you conducting paranormal and unidentified flying object investigations into animal mutilations, and then publicly contradicting and being critical of official Sheriff’s Office investigations in a public forum. Although you have claimed not to have represented yourself as a Sheriff’s Office Reserve Deputy, the media reports allude to you as “volunteer El Paso County Sheriff’s Department deputy.” This adversarial position, without having full knowledge of the information gathered by detectives, is unacceptable.”
The previous segment is referring to the August 2010 Rush Colorado Horse mutilation. The “publicly contradicting and being critical of official sheriff’s Office investigations in a public forum” started with an interview I did with Heidi Hemmat – KDVR Fox News Denver.
The statement “Although you have claimed not to have represented yourself as a Sheriff’s Office Reserve Deputy, the media reports allude to you as “volunteer El Paso County Sheriff’s Department deputy”. This is referring to news media who have picked up any stories I’m in, and then researched me.
The statement,” Although you have claimed not to have represented yourself as a Sheriff’s Office Reserve Deputy” is because in the eight years with the department. I’ve never conducted an investigation while representing the department.
Also in the segment with Fox News I said, “Local law enforcement, they’re really not trained to look at something like this.” And this is true! I’ve learned some deputies have taken a one week course on investigating animal deaths, but this doesn’t give them the experience needed to decide if it’s of a paranormal nature.
Generally when detectives are called to a potential mutilation site, they’re training involves looking for evidence which could tie it to possible human intervention which caused the death of the animal. This could make it a criminal case in which they would need to pursue the incident further. If lack of human intervention evidence is seen, (ie. footprints, tire prints, animal drag markings) then law enforcement representatives will assume a natural cause of death may have occurred. Without previous study in animal mutilation phenomenons, law enforcement representatives can make the wrong assessments determining the death of the animal. Lacerations in uncommon areas, circular incisions, missing tongues, lack of an abundance of blood, and strange animal behavior of the surviving ranch animals, are the clues ranchers see which points to a kill which they’re not familiar with. This may be difficult for law enforcement representatives to understand if never fully understanding the mutilation phenomenon.
So what type of experience does a UFO/Paranormal investigator have?
My experience includes years of research, interviews, conferences, networking with other animal mutilation experts, and my own investigations. I’m also in direct communication with representatives from Colorado State University’s veterinary lab on every case relaying information to them. The majority of my investigative techniques searching for clues of an animal’s death are also learned by talking to the ranchers themselves. They know the predators which frequent their property, they’re familiar with natural deaths which take down their animals, and they can spot the signs when pointed to something very unfamiliar to them. In 2009 the five ranchers for whom I investigated their mutilated animals had over 300 years of combined ranching experience between them! Manual Sanchez who lost four calves within a month’s time is a “third” generation cattle rancher! If he says he doesn’t know what killed his animals, you can pretty well bet, I’ll listen to him.
Simple communication between law enforcement agencies and animal mutilation investigators could increase the odds needed to find the answers both parties are looking for. Unless law enforcement agencies step up their investigative techniques by increasing the possibilities the animal deaths could be of an unknown nature, they’ll never be able to solve these particular cases. Also, the more law enforcement agencies disregard an experienced cattle/horse rancher’s opinion, the more often a loss of respect will exist between the ranchers and the agency. This is a direction I see time and time again. If the ranchers were comfortable with the investigating law enforcement’s assessment of the animal’s death, then there would be no need for them to involve the press and call investigators like me.
Second segment:
“Furthermore, when spoken to by Reserve Sergeant (name on file), it was suggested you refrain from conducting paranormal and unidentified flying objects investigations, which could be viewed as a conflict of interest if being investigated by the Sheriff’s Office. You clearly indicated this was not acceptable and you would not recuse yourself from such investigations.”
Of course I can’t agree to this. The department could use any type of UFO/Paranormal sighting including animal mutilations which were reported via 911, as being investigated by the department. I would have to refrain from investigating every occurrence in 2200 square miles of El Paso County which 911 was utilized. This would also exclude working with MUFON as one of their STAR investigators, or OpenMinds, or UFO Matrix, or or or…. Get the drift?
Now some questions to ponder:
Is having a volunteer deputy sheriff running UFO/Paranormal investigations on his personal time considered an eye sore to the Sheriff’s department? So much so, that they want him out of their department?
Or, should they utilize his personal skills in the paranormal field?
How about just generally asking:
Should law enforcement personnel acting out of uniform in a non official position be restricted from contradicting statements released by their departments?
Imagine what would happen if our own congressional men and women were terminated for publicly disagreeing with the president who is within their own political party? Could this be a violation of the First Amendment? Freedom of Speech?
Law Enforcement agencies along with some high courts generally make it tougher for police officers who cry 1stAmendment, as a relevant argument. Most cases I’ve read side with the department not the police officer when the statements made by the officer are offensive to the department. This protects the integrity of their department.
So is disagreeing with the Sheriff’s department’s assumptions on a horse mutilation considered so detrimental to the department’s integrity, that it constitutes a dismissal?
Now in my defense:
When I was confronted by the sergeant about this incident, I asked to talk with my commander to explain my position. I also requested to give a lecture on animal mutilations to the deputies who investigate animal deaths so we could compare notes. This would have also given me the opportunity to find out if I was stepping over an invisible boundary.
A meeting was never granted, my sergeant never had updates when I confronted him, and I never received the opportunity to defend myself. Well so much for the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment as well (Denial of Rights to Represent Yourself Properly).
After receiving the termination letter, I emailed the Sheriff’s office in my defense. As of the writing of this blog, I have not received a response from them.
I’ve worked as a volunteer with EPSO for over eight years along side some of the best deputies in the state of Colorado. On duty I would have laid my life on the line for them, and they would have done the same for me. I’ve never had any type of conflicts with the deputies I’ve worked with, and they’ve never had any negative comments about me. (As far as I know.)
Now back to animal mutilations. There have been law enforcement agencies who have investigated cattle mutilations in the past and who have stepped up to the challenge. The following are just to name a few.
April 7th, 1993 the Fyffe Police Department, Fyffe, Alabama released a press conference about 30 animals which had been discovered dead in pastures with various internal and external organs missing.
March 28th, 1997, the State of Florida formed a task force to investigate mysterious wounds found on cattle in Brevard, Seminole, Lake and St. Lucie counties.
August 11th, 2001, Police in Montana investigating cattle mutilations were so frustrated with their lack of progress, that they asked the National Institute for Discovery Science, a Nevada research institute dedicated to the study of anomalies, for help. (Great Falls Tribune article)
So there are law enforcement agencies which are quite concerned about mutilation cases. Remember, since the media release of Snippy (Lady) the horse’s mutilation near Alamosa Colorado in 1967, there have not been anyone caught, tried and convicted of any mutilation crime. And just for the record, the Rush horse mutilation wounds were very similar to the 1967 case. Of course law enforcement wouldn’t have known that unless they studied previous mutilation cases.
So what do you think, did I make the right decision?
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The following are full posts on reference to these mutilation incidents:
Colorado Horse Mutilations Raise Questions and Disagreements - 11/9/2010
The horses were discovered with their throats slit and chests cut open. The genitals, tongues, and eyes of the horses were removed. The family stated that there were no footprints around the horses and no blood evident. Since El Chupacabra, humans, predators and satanic cults would leave footprints, the paranormal investigator on the case blamed UFOs, according to a report by Fox31 news in Denver.
News reports make no mention of how long the horses were missing prior to the discovery of the carcasses.
The paranormal investigator on the case, Chuck Zukowski, examined the horses and determined that UFOs were to blame. With 8 animal mutilations in Colorado.this year, Zukowski said that the evidence points to the horses being mutilated in a manner that would support his assertion.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s department doesn’t agree with the conclusion of Zukowski’s investigation.
Although they did not examine the horses closely, since the animals were “badly decomposed”, they say that the state of the horses were consistent with a predator attack.
Zukowski and the Schneiders state that they know what predator attacks look like and choose to believe that this was an alien-related mutilation. The family is fearful that it could happen again.
According to Zukowski’s website UFONut, he has 30 years of experience in the paranormal and specializes in “a diverse area including UFOlogy, Roswell, alien abductions, cattle mutilations, UFO investigations and ghost hunting”, Zukowski is also “a Sworn Deputy Sheriff for Colorado’s El Paso County Sheriff’s Reserve Unit”.
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Click for video
kwgn - A Colorado family is searching for answers after finding their horses carved up and left to die.
"I just started to cry," Glenda Schneider told FOX31 News.
Schneider discovered two of her horses had been mutilated, with their throats slit and their chests cut open. Their genitals, tongues and eyes had been removed.
Yet, there was no blood, no footprints, and no witnesses to the crime.
"You wonder what happened," Schneider said. "What took place? What did it?"
The Schneider‘s filed a report with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department and they contacted paranormal investigator Chuck Zukowski.
Zukowski examined the horses and determined the horses died from unknown causes, and said there was plenty of evidence indicating the animals were mutilated.
"The straight cuts, the open rib cage, the flesh taken off. Those are red flags," Zukowski said. He believes UFO’s could be to blame.
The Schneider’s are not alone. Paranormal investigators say there have been 8 animal mutilation cases in Colorado in just the past year.
Hundreds of animal mutilation cases across the country have been documented since 1967.
But the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department disagrees with Zukowski's assertion.
They believe the horses were killed by predators, though they admit investigators weren’t able to examine the horses as closely as they would like to because the animals were so badly decomposed.
Still, the Schneider’s insist they know what predator attacks look like, and what happened to their horses is anything but.
They fear whatever killed their horses could come back, and it has shattered the peace on their quiet ranch.
NOTE: Bottom line - the El Paso County Sheriff's Office is attempting to cover up the truth or to cover their collective asses...Lon