New film explores cattle mutilation mystery in Oregon

Phineas Pope: In Eastern Oregon and across the nation, cattle mutilation has been puzzling and concerning ranchers and law enforcement for decades. Now, a new film is highlighting the communities trying to solve this mystery. NWPB’s Anna King and filmmakers Jackson Devereux and Lachlan Hinton join me now to discuss. So before we jump into the film, Anna, how did you first decide this was something you were going to report on? 

Anna King: I was reading a newspaper, and kind of in the middle of the paper, and in a smaller article, was this case about mutilated cattle in Oregon. And when I saw it, I just was like, “What is going on there?” And so I went down there for the first time, and it was just really eerie, Finn. It was like this show steer, almost like a show animal that you would take to the fair, laying upon the ground. And he was shiny, like he’d just been washed — but he was dead and kind of crumpled up like an unstuffed toy. But, the ultimate thing is, they’re using the best science they have, they’re using modern sheriff’s techniques, and they still haven’t been able to solve these cases. And so it really is this lingering mystery.

Pope: This is your first feature project. How did you know this mystery was going to make for a good film? Jackson? 

Jackson Devereux: Once we saw Anna’s article, we were captivated. It was Anna’s way of writing — very lyrical. (It) made this mystery sound beautiful and haunting at the same time, and that complexity intrigued us enough to reach out to her.

Pope: And the name of the film, “Not One Drop of Blood.”  Why that name? Lachlan? 

Lachlan Hinton: Really, the lack of blood in these mutilation cases. It’s one of the most puzzling and frequently reported aspects of them. There’s no blood at the scene whatsoever. There’s no visible blood trails, there’s no pools. There’s no way you would typically expect to find blood. So we found that it just sort of encapsulated the most bizarre and sort of intriguing part of the story.

Pope: You included in this film some interviews of specifically Native people, Native youth, not necessarily tied to cattle mutilation, right? Why was that important to do?

Devereux: As you drive into town you pass the Burns Paiute Reservation. Immediately, we wanted to make sure they were represented in this piece. And the community, and the story of the community, became a kind of second narrative for us. And organically, we were able to meet these youths who quickly stood out against all of the more agriculture, or the ranching family youths that we had been frequenting a lot.

Hinton: I think outside of ranching there, in these sort of remote rural areas, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for kids, necessarily. A lot of these places are sort of experiencing population loss, where young people are trying to find opportunities in education. These kids in the film, they have dreams of being rappers. They want to move to the big city. They want to move to Boise, they want to move to Portland, and chase their dreams. So, you know, it’s not just ranching out there. There’s other things going on. But I think it was important for us to try and paint a bit of a portrait and bring together these different aspects as almost like a tapestry of the community.

Pope: Anna, you’ve been reporting on ag for a long time. You’ve covered ranchers and farmers during tough times. Clearly, as these guys are saying, there’s a level of frustration and confusion. What was that like to witness? Is it emotional?

King: It was really hard to see scenes like when we came upon one particular mutilation with a rancher, way, way out from Burns area, Oregon. He told me in an aside, he said, “What I’m really worried about is the calf,” because the mother cow had been murdered or killed, and they couldn’t sort the calf from the whole herd. They didn’t know where the calf was. And so that little calf likely would starve because it wouldn’t have its mother by its side. And so those are some of the heart wrenching things that happened while we were out there filming. 

Devereux: It was really important as we made this film that’s surrounded by a mystery that’s been covered in sometimes very trivial ways, to bring some honesty to this story.

Pope: I’m curious if you were ever thinking during your process, “How has this not been solved yet?” I mean, did you think that you might figure it out over the course of making this film?

Devereux: When you first hear this mystery? Yes, I definitely would like to know the answer to this. And I thought with a lot of research and some dedicated time, I might be able to do that. But that research just leads to a lot of left and right turns, and maybe a bigger understanding of why this mystery has not been put to bed yet.

Pope: What do you want people to take away from this film?

Hinton: There’s just a real, like, beauty in the simplicity of the landscape and the place, and to some degree, the life out there. You know, having an appreciation of the hard work that these people do and what really goes into raising the animals. I suppose we can all be from different places and have different ideas and different ways of living. But there’s still, at the end of the day, things that connect us. They’re important. Hopefully the film can remind us that we have to have a little bit of empathy for one another.

Pope: Anna King, Jackson Devereux and Lachlan Hinton’s new film, “Not One Drop of Blood,” premieres in Boise, Idaho, at Filmfort, part of the Treefort Music Festival, on March 28. 

Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity.

From left to right: Lachlan Hinton, Jackson Devereux and Anna King. (Courtesy: Lachlan Hinton and Jackson Devereux)