Volunteers find decapitated animals on beach

Saturday, September 19, 2009

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Volunteers cleaning up the Hillsborough County side of the Courtney Campbell Causeway made a gruesome discovery Saturday.

While picking up trash, they found mutilated animal carcasses on a secluded beach.

Volunteer Christina Kugeares found some of the carcasses. Along with a headless goat, there was a decapitated duck and hen.

"I was horrified. I know this stuff happens," Kugeares said. "Honestly, I didn't think that it was happening here in the Tampa Bay area."

Organizers say this is not the first time something like this has been found in the area.

"It was a little unusual, but I can't say it's the first time we've found this out here," said cleanup organizer Christine Commerce.

The Tampa Police Department says it can only speculate as to what was done here. Ritual animal sacrifice is constitutionally protected.

The International Coastal Cleanup is an annual event held by Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful. Last year they say they found a live guinea pig on Apollo Beach.

There are dozens of International Coastal Cleanup sites around Hillsborough County, with a few thousand volunteers cleaning up around 50,000 pounds of trash.