Authorities in Texas are investigating the mysterious deaths of six cattle found with their tongues “completely removed” by precision “clean cuts.” 

Ranchers in Madison County, about 100 miles southeast of Waco, found the mutilated remains of a 6-year-old longhorn-cross cow lying on her side at their ranch. 

Madison County Sheriff’s Office said, “A straight, clean cut, with apparent precision, had been made to remove the hide around the cow’s mouth on one side, leaving the meat under the removed hide untouched. The tongue was also completely removed from the body with no blood spill.” 
“It was noted there were no signs of struggle and the grass around the cow was undisturbed,” investigators from the sheriff’s office said. 

Investigators added: “No footprints or tire tracks were noted in the area.” 

Ranchers also reported five similar cases involving four adult cows and one yearling in Brazos and Robertson counties. 

The exact cause of death of the six livestock is unknown; each was found the same way, with “face cut along the jaw line and the tongue removed” in “straight, clean cut, with apparent precision,” the sheriff’s office said. 

One commenter on the Facebook post wrote, “This is just to dristraxt of from how high inflation is.” 

The discovery of the cattle resembles a storyline from an episode of “The X-Files.”