Reward offered for person behind sacrificed animals at Long Island cemetery
MIDDLE ISLAND, Long Island (WABC) -- Nestled in the fallen leaves in Union Cemetery on Long Island was a medley of fruits and vegetables - next to it was the remains of a beheaded chicken, black rooster, and white dove.
This was the first of two discoveries in the past month. The most recent discovery contained a bag with a decapitated chicken and chunks of coconut. It was found Wednesday by a man walking his dog near the entrance of the cemetery.
"Here what they are doing is torturing these animals. What they do is use a knife - in many cases a dull knife, and I have heard of situations where they want to cause extreme harm to these animals, more pain and suffering to these animals before they are killed. It's barbaric," said Suffolk County SPCA Chief Roy Gross.
The Suffolk County SPCA suspects these are the results of a ritualistic animal sacrifice, and they are seeing it on Long Island more and more.
Prior to the gruesome findings at Union Cemetery in Middle Island, police called in two decapitated chickens in front of a headstone at Old Baptist Cemetery in Coram back in August.
The history and brutality has no bounds say Gross.
"In one case we actually found tongues, cow tongues nailed to a tree. We took down the tongues, dissected them and found nine pieces of paper with names on them with needles," Gross adds.
The penalty for someone who gets caught doing something like this is a misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine per offense.
The SPCA says this may be a cultural practice, but in New York, animal cruelty is against the law and traumatic for anyone who witnesses it.
"Finding dead animals, decapitated animals, that's something that'll never go out of their head. That's something that they'll have for the rest of their lives, they'll probably remember that. So gruesome," Gross says.
The Suffolk County SPCA is offering a $2,000 reward for anyone who provides information leading authorities to the perpetrators.
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