ALGIERS, La. (WGNO) — People who visit Brechtel Park in Algiers are horrified to find out a baby goat was beheaded and his brother is missing.
It’s a heartbreaking moment when you hear the mother goat cry out for her children.
“There’s a lot of really sick people in the world. It just makes you sad because you kind of have ownership of those goats because you see them every day,” says park visitor Melanie Clary.
The herd has been a familiar sight at Brechtel Park for the last seven months. Their owner, Morgana King, says she showed up Thursday morning to find the goats were out of their pen.
“It was strange because usually they’re all together. There was a bunch of them in one place and then a couple of them in another place in the park,” says King.
Four-month-old Jack was nowhere to be found and his brother Calvin was decapitated.
“It looked like it was left there on purpose for me to find,” says King.
Humane Officers with the Louisiana SPCA spent the day combing the park for clues. They say this wasn’t the act of an animal, but rather a human that severed the baby goat’s head.
“After the body was inspected, there was no injury on the goat, no bite wounds or any other problems than the poor little goat missing its head,” says Louisiana SPCA Humane Officer Amanda Pumilia.
It’s suspected that teenagers might be responsible.
“My husband said he did have a bad encounter with some teenagers, but I don’t know what happened,” says King.
The Humane Society of Louisiana says crimes against animals, like this one, are becoming a priority for the FBI.
“Young perpetrators doing criminal acts against animals, we all know leads to the same kind of violence toward people and they’re trying, and rightfully so, to identify those youths early on and get them treatment or incarceration,” says Jeff Dorson with the Humane Society of Louisiana.
The goats were brought to Brechtel Park to eat invasive species of plants and visitors in the park say they’ve been doing a good job. The animals hold a special place in the hearts of families, now a mother’s heart is broken, as she searches for her babies.
The Louisiana SPCA is offering a $1,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.
The beheaded goat and the missing one belonged to this herd, pictured below.