DAILY NEWS: SPCA officials got more than they bargained for yesterday when they checked out a house on North Front Street following a report of a dog living in unsanitary conditions. Inside, they found a grisly animal graveyard with the remains of dozens of creatures that had been sacrificed in religious rituals [not pictured, above]. The discovery unfolded about 4 p.m. at a house on Front Street near Louden. “The whole house was covered in feathers from chickens that had been sacrificed,” said George Bengal, director of law enforcement of the Pennsylvania SPCA. There were also skeletons of what were possibly other farm animals, and what appeared to be skeletons of dogs, cats and possibly primates. MORE
UPDATE: Officer George Bengal, director of law enforcement at the Pennsylvania SPCA, came out of a Feltonville house yesterday carrying box after box of dead animal parts and skins. After hours of digging through the dirt in an enclosed back area of the house and searching through the clutter of the house, PSPCA investigators found the remains of about 400 to 500 animals strewn throughout the house or buried in the ground in the back enclosed area, Bengal later said. The remains included “possibly” the carcasses of two monkeys, he said. The bones of one were found on an altar in a room off the kitchen. PSPCA law-enforcement officers also found about 100 or more knives, mostly machetes, he said. Animals “definitely” were used in some kind of religious ritual, Bengal said yesterday evening, after the officers finished digging and collecting boxes of evidence. MORE