Queens, New York, has recorded an unprecedented surge in horrific animal sacrifices as residents report finding mutilated chickens, pigs, and rats that also display grim signs of torture.
At least nine severely scarred dead animals have been found in the Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel, The New York Post reported.
Of those wounded animals found, it included pigs, which had partially severed ears.
Residents also found a barely alive baby rat in a bag with chicken bones, a severed chicken head, and a live hen in distress.
Authorities also found a deceased dog with its neck snapped.
“It’s continually getting worse. The animal sacrifices are happening more repeatedly, more times a week,” Sloane Quealy, co-founder and president of Zion’s Mission Animal Rescue, told the New York Post.
“The sacrificers know it’s open season.”
Quealy and Kim Fraser told how they recently came to the aid of three pigs who were discovered in crates at Howard Beach near some bundled-up prayer flags.
One of the mutilated pigs was found emaciated in a food-filled crate, covered in oils and spices with a deep gash running down its face, according to Kristen Latuga of the Long Island-based animal sanctuary Brucie’s Angels.
The sanctuary is currently caring for the five wounded pigs that were recovered alive.
“We found a burned-out barrel with a rooster carcass pieces and feathers all around,” Quealy explained.
“We had also seen a man leaving that night with just a shovel. They dig deep holes to contain the birds.”
“Animals both dead and alive have been recovered by rescuers for years.”
According to one l religious leader, the animal torture and sacrifice could be linked to a Hindu sect who have performed animal sacrifice in the Jamaica Bay Area for decades.
“It’s a misconstruing of what the scriptures say about conquering the animalistic values,” said Acharya Arun Gossai, who runs the Bhuvaneshwar Mandir temple in Ozone Park.
“They’ve twisted it and they’ve sacrificed an actual animal rather than sacrificing the animalistic qualities of man.”
Jamaica Bay has long been a popular religious site among members of the Hindu Guyanese and Indo-Caribbeans, according to the Post.
Last week, animal rescuer Kim Fraser tracked down a trio of piglets that had their ears and tails cut off. The piglets were located 100 feet away from statues of Hindu deities resting atop a mound of turf.
Paganist practices, which include voodoo and Santeria, often torture animals and sacrifice them and have also been known to carry out gruesome rituals on the beaches.
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