Mutilated Animals Discovered at San Pedro Park

The neatly decapitated carcasses of a small goat and 30 roosters, hens and pigeons were found at the Friendship County Regional Park in San Pedro on Sunday, the fourth such discovery and by far the largest at the park since last summer.

The grisly find was made by maintenance supervisor Martin Markham at 7 a.m. as he arrived at work. The dead animals filled four black trash bags piled against the park’s iron gates. The bags also contained the animals’ heads.

Police officials speculated that the mutilations might be the result of satanic sacrificial rituals. But they are not ruling out the possibility that pranksters might be responsible, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. John Hanna.

Markham had found bags of similarly mutilated fowl dumped at the 100-acre park three times since last summer, but never with so many animals. His finds were always made on weekends, and the carcasses always were in black trash bags.

He found a huge headless rooster in the first incident, “the biggest I’ve ever seen,” Markham said.

The second find consisted of two chickens and a pair of doves, all decapitated. And just two weeks ago, he found another headless rooster.

Sunday morning, when Markham spotted the trash bags against the gates of the park, “I thought it was the same thing again,” he said.

Because of the number of animals, he notified police for the first time.

All the animals had been decapitated except a duck, whose neck had been slashed to drain it of blood.

Markham speculated that bored local youths trying to imitate satanic rituals might be responsible for the mutilations.

Although the park is “very peaceful” during the day, illegal visitors often enter the hilly park after nightfall to speed across the grass in four-wheel-drive vehicles, he said.

“It’s so weird,” Hanna said. He said it was the first report of animal mutilations he has heard of in the San Pedro area.

“Kids like to go up there and drink beer, especially during weekends,” Hanna said of Friendship Park. “I can see kids getting hold of a cat or dog, but where do you get a goat?”