Cattle mutilation (thing)

A phenomenon often associated in the pop media with UFOs, satanic cults or the paranormal, but in the real world more likely connected with insurance. The typical scenario is like this: A farmer living in the middle of nowhere reports that he saw a flashing light (or other such vague UFO-ey evidence), and when he went outside to investigate, he found his cattle dead, with parts of their bodies cut off, but no blood on the ground!
The sci.skeptic FAQ has this to say:

• Cattle are very expensive. Each "head" is worth several thousand dollars.
• Insurance doesn't cover "range death" due to natural causes (e.g falling and killing themselves).
• Insurance does cover vandalism (eg. a vandal shooting a cow).
• A space alien killing a cow will be covered by the insurance - provided a cooperating policeman will write up the report that way.
• Space aliens mutilating cows seem to respect county (police jurisdiction) lines.
• Relatively little blood leaks out of a dead animal (compared to a live animal) when it is cut. The heart just isn't pumping.