Since 1969 the government has claimed no interest in the subject of UFOs, and the press and media either ignore or ridicule any mention of UFOs. Yet citizen scientists and non-governmental organizations have continued to research the phenomenon. Cheryl Costa is one of those activists and writes the popular UFO column "New York Skies" for the Syracuse NewTimes. She joined George Knapp in the first half to discuss data and analysis for sightings of UFOs reported in the first 15 years. Costa mentioned the decline in UFO sightings over the last ten years, and in particular a 15-20% drop off in just the last two years. She said that there seems to be no definite reason for the reports diminishing. With her detailed data, Costa says that she can now pinpoint information on reported UFO sightings "right down to the municipal level."
Costa discussed the poor attitude of the media towards the UFO subject and recalled the difficulty she had in getting newspapers and television interested in her data and the trends she was seeing. She said she could hear the "roaring laughter" over the phone in one newsroom when the editor asked if anyone wanted to do a story on the subject. Costa also discussed the decline of UFO meetings and conferences and lamented the "graying" of the people who attend them, with few younger people taking their place. Recently, Costa ran across an article on cattle mutilations in Kansas and found that UFO reports correlated closely with areas of mutilation reports.
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In the second half, Irish researchers Carl Nally and Dermot Butler discussed the history of unexplained animal deaths in the UK and beyond, with Butler noting that the term "mutilation" is a serious misnomer when animals are found carefully cut and with specific organs removed, not ripped apart or destroyed. It is almost as if someone or something is conducting some sort of bizarre survey and almost doesn’t seem to care who notices, because of the brazen and macabre nature of some of the cases. Butler told of a case from Washington state where a forest worker observed a full-grown elk picked up by a small aerial object and carried away, and the animal appeared to be stunned or frozen when this occurred. He also pointed out that, in spite of reports like this, that "it doesn’t necessarily have to be UFOs" that are responsible.
Both guests then began a discussion of the disturbing case of the McLaughlin sheep farm in Ireland, with which they have been closely involved for many years. Animals have been attacked at the location at the rate of a few a month for more than two decades. Along with the "classic" issues of unexplained deaths, such as surgical precision of cuts in the flesh and missing organs, the startling difference in this frightening case is that many of the animals have been found with their tongues removed while still alive, and no one has ever caught the perpetrators. Nally and Butler described the stonewalling and apparent efforts to ignore the case by the local police and animal welfare organizations. Butler said they have found that "all over the world, there seems to be a cover-up" of this issue.