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Michigan State University

Reward raised to $13K to find men who beheaded goat

WWL-TV, New Orleans
The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has investigated two goat beheadings in the past two months.

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana animal rescue group is offering a $13,000 reward as part of a probe into a goat beheading, the second incident officials have discovered in the past two months, the group said Wednesday.

The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals received a 12-second cellphone video Tuesday that showed at least five young men in a back yard as one decapitated the goat with a machete-like sword, according to spokeswoman Alicia Haefele.

The men stood in a circle as one tied a string around the goat's neck, she said. The goat then was hung from above as the killer swung his sword.

The other men cheered with some recording the incident on their cellphones.

Haefele described the video as "horrific." After the beheading, the goat lay in the swimming pool while its head remained on the string.

New Orleans police investigated a tip Wednesday afternoon that the body of a goat was in the back yard of a home near Tulane University but did not find any evidence linked to the cellphone video, SPCA officials said. Campus police also are involved in the investigation.

Among Louisiana's state laws prohibiting cruelty to animals is one that bans ritualistic acts, according to the Animal Legal and Historical Center at Michigan State University. That includes the mutilation, dismemberment, torture, abuse or sacrifice of animals.

Those convicted of such acts, which are a felony, could face up to five years in prison and be fined up to $5,000.

This killing appears unrelated to the Jan. 28 beheading of a baby pygmy goat, which was stolen from its owner and decapitated in Brechtel Park, Haefele said. A second goat also was stolen at the same time and remains missing.

But investigators are wondering whether a bigger problem exists in the community, she said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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