In late April 2002, the morning after strange lights had been seen over the city of Salliquelo - about 135 miles (225 km) southwest of Buenos Aires - cattle ranchers found three freshly dead cows bearing all the hallmarks of a classic 70s-style animal mutilation. By early August – deep winter in Argentina - the number of mutilated reports had reached 400, and was still rising, with no clues as to the perpetrators.

The animals – the odd wild boar, Argentinean llama and domestic animals said to be among them – bore the now all-too-familiar marks of the mutilators: tongues, ears, eyes and internal organs including the lungs, larynx, pharynx and saliva glands have been excised.