Hundreds of dead animals found in Philadelphia home after apparent ritual religious sacrifice

A graveyard of nearly 500 dead animals, ranging from white-tailed deer to cobra to monkeys, were found strewn inside and outside of a Philadelphia-area home in what investigators believe is evidence of religious ritual killings.

Chicken feathers covered the scene, and among the remains were satanic books, buckets of blood and approximately 100 knives.

It was not a one-time act. George Bengal, a director of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told reporters he couldn’t even identify some of the carcasses because they were so badly decomposed. Officers also found an AK-47 assault rifle at the Feltonville, Pennsylvania two-story house, though it was not clear that it had been used to kill any animals.



"There's all kinds of stuff in there," Officer Jerry Czech of the Pennsylvania Game Commission said. "Dead animals, dead critters, wax, faeces, candles. It's a nightmare."

It is not illegal to sacrifice animals for religious purposes as long as it is done humanely, Bengal said. But it’s not clear that the second condition was met at the grisly crime scene. Investigators reportedly found turtles that had been starved to death inside a tank, and other animals appeared to have been tortured.

A man and his live-in female partner, both believed to currently be in Mexico, are wanted for questioning in relationship to the carnage.

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