Monday, July 6, 2009

Animal sacrifices in Staten Island park

From the Staten Island Advance:

For the past two days, visitors to a park in Staten Island's Fort Wadsworth section have stumbled upon a gory mystery -- a mutilated animal, possibly a dog or a goat, wrapped in a white sheet.

Parkgoers found two such animals in Von Briesen Park yesterday and this morning, city Parks Department officials confirmed.

The discovery has sparked speculation of ritual sacrifice and cult activity, and has led one Port Richmond woman to douse part of the ground where one animal was found with holy water, in an attempt to ward off what she believes is an evil presence.

Several alluded to Santeria, which blends elements of Yoruba, an African religion, with Catholicism and involves animal sacrifice in some of its rituals.

Daya Madison, of St. George, came upon the first carcass at about 10 or 10:30 a.m. yesterday, after her pet terrier, Katie Baby, led her to it.

The carcass was laid out on a clean white sheet, she said, and at first glance, it looked like a dog.

Though she said she got no help from 311, she was able to find a Parks Department employee, who told her the animal looked more like a goat.

The second carcass showed up today, wrapped in a white sheet under a curved tree not far from a path a few hundred feet into the park.

Back in August 2005, a couple walking their dog discovered six decapitated chickens positioned in a semicircle, their heads placed in a wooden bowl at the center.

Joseph Pentangelo, a spokesman for the ASPCA, urged anyone who sees a similar mutilation to call his agency at 877-THEASPCA.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

On one hand, what is new. Rodmen's Neck to St Michaels, this has been around for decades.

The scary thing was there was a time (yet in living memory) where something like this would have been impossible to conceive.

Anonymous said...

Holy water - what the hell is that going to accomplish?

Anonymous said...

The woman obviously believes that this is the manifestation of evil. Holy water is a symbolic exorcism because it represents the waters of baptism-- a symbolic death followed by resurrection.

Furthermore, during Easter services holy water is sprinkled on Roman Catholic mass attendees as part of a rite of exorcism while the priest asks the congregation to reject Satan and the glamor of evil.

This lady is not crazy--just a very freaked-out Roman Catholic.

Anonymous said...

"This lady is not crazy--just a very freaked-out Roman Catholic."

I'm a practicing Catholic - it's the same thing as being "crazy" - I think - one has to suspend belief of the ordinary and belive the extraordinary. Anyone who believes in God must be a little "crazy", but anyone who refuses to acknowledge that there's a higher power out there must be nuts!

Anonymous said...

Ignorant jungle people

Anonymous said...

Ignorant jungle people

Yeah, Catholics freak me out too.

Queens Crapper said...

Instead of concentrating on the way visitors to the park are reacting to finding the mutilated animals, why not comment on the way the Parks Dept and the NYPD allow this crap to go on in parks at night?

Anonymous said...

comment on the way the Parks Dept and the NYPD allow this crap to go on in parks at night?

ALLOW this stuff to go on overnight? We're supposed to be outraged because there are not police eyes on every sq ft of the city 24/7, because the city isn't funding a full graveyard shift of Parks Department employees? Upset because this is not yet a police state?

What are your priorities? If the police presence is oppressive, you complain. If Mayor Bloomturd and his jolly band of Tweeders throws money around willy-nilly, you complain. If parks are sensibly NOT patrolled as heavily at midnight - since they're supposed to be closed, right? - you complain.

Queens Crapper said...

"supposed to be closed" is the key phrase. Who makes sure they are?

The police and parks department already know this is a problem. Yet they do nothing about it. They could liaison with the ASPCA police and set up a sting and put an end to it. But why do that? It's better to let the stuff go on, allow the remains to be discovered by in the morning by kids, dogs, and anyone else using the park. Right?

Anonymous said...

"Instead of concentrating on the way visitors to the park are reacting to finding the mutilated animals, why not comment on the way the Parks Dept and the NYPD allow this crap to go on in parks at night?"

Because it's more fun to bust on people making comments than to address the real issue?

Anonymous said...

Hopefully these foreign miscreants will start sacrificing their childrenAnd i'll save some tax$$

georgetheatheist said...

"I keep my eyes wide open all the time." - Johnny Cash

WARNING. The following is not for the faint of heart

In the late 1950's I remember seeing something that has been seared into my memory. Across from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel school in Astoria was a weedy vacant lot. Some classmates and I out on our lunch break on a Monday discovered the carcass of a dead cat that had a rope tied around its neck. The entire lower part of the cat's body was burned off. And the upper remaining half was singed to a crisp. We were horrified at what had transpired in the lot there at night over that weekend. I don't think it was a cult religious ritual but a gang initiation or activity of some sort. The Parkside Gents were notorious in the neighborhood.

Wade Nichols said...

Diversity is strength!!!

It's also.......animal sacrifice!!!!

Anonymous said...

Genesis 22:12-14
12He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
13Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.
14Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the LORD it will be provided."

Exodus 29:38-43
38"Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two one year old lambs each day, continuously.
39"The one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight;
40and there shall be one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering with one lamb.
41"The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD.
42"It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.
43"I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by My glory.

Etc., etc. The Old Testament, the foundation of Christianity.

If you ask me, all organized religion is a little wacko. But for those of you who subscribe to one, may you be tolerant of the others.

georgetheatheist said...

Amen.