I did some googling and found this: https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4456 and the wikipedia article covers a bit of the same ground https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_mutilation#Natural_causes
However neither of those explain the cause of death, which, at least in the recent cases, seems to be one of the mysteries.
bluehenbeared:
Badgers.
NRA Response:
Oblig:
I have a mysterious rash right now!
Some of us are old enough to have played the original pocket box version.
Holy moly!
Chickens in 'copters choppers.
Uh, “choppers” I think.
Badgers? We don’t need no steenkin badgers…
We have UFOs.
From the classic Mutilations_Of_The_Sierra_Madre.
I might be old enough, but didn’t know about it.
From junk we have emerged
Slaves willing to serve
Our own damning demands from our own damning hands
De-evolved man.
Who been on tour through the area recently?
The best detail is the final shot of a very satisfied badger sitting in a big pile of dirt.
So was it Frost Nova or Chain Lightning? 
Witches,
Pagans,
Satanist
/S
We’re going to need a smaller, more comical, dog…
I said “sickos who want to mutilate cattle”.
But in all seriousness, none of the Pagans I’ve met would mutilate animals, and probably not any witches. Satanists maybe depending on which kind we are talking about.
I’ve seen a lot of weird sh*t in my time. I’m open to the idea that there’s something at work that we don’t understand, and isn’t “aliens”.
