Dog Sacrifices in Pennsylvania?

Last week animal protective services searched a home in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and discovered the bones of several dogs, along with a dog's head stored in a freezer. Police have put forth the theory that the house may have been the scene of ritual sacrifices, as a handful of occult books were found during the search. Whether or not this is the case remains to be seen. It appears that whoever lived in the home was in the process of covering over one of the skulls with gold-leaf, so perhaps this is more a case of twisted arts and crafts rather than anything occult. Still, the head in the freezer suggests that this individual may have killed at least one of the dogs, and as far as animal protective services is concerned it doesn't matter whether the goal was an art project or some sort of ceremony.

Rich Britton, a spokesman for the Chester County SPCA, said his agency was contacted by police yesterday and executed a search warrant at a home in the 2400 block of Wayne Avenue in Caln Township.

Britton said he and two animal protective-services officers entered the home's living room, where a gold-leafed animal skull was displayed on a coffee table, and a 10-inch animal vertebrae sat on a fireplace mantel. Also in plain view was a necklace that appeared to be made of canine teeth and four or five knives and machetes, Britton said.

Two more skulls that appeared to be canine were in the kitchen, along with a drawer of animal bones, four occult books, and a workbench with gold-leafing materials, he said. Investigators found the dog's head in the freezer, Britton said.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," said Britton, describing the findings as "macabre and Dahmeresque" in a "nice, typical suburban" neighborhood.

Back when I covered that werewolf-BDSM case I noted that it was unlikely the woman in question was a real occultist because she only owned a handful of occult books. Some readers called me on that, pointing out that information could have been on her computer since so much stuff is out on the Internet these days. I stand by my assessment, though, because aside from a single title there wasn't anything that would be of much use in performing actual rituals. In this case, police found only four books on "witchcraft and the occult" and the article doesn't list the titles. That's a shame, because those titles would probably tell us something about whether or not the folks suspected of ritual sacrifices were performing them or not. If the books are, say, by Silver Ravenwolf, I'd say no. On the other hand, if they're on Palo Mayombe or some other system that incorporates animal sacrifice the likelihood of those charges being true rises substantially.

I'm really hoping that I never get accused of anything like this, because if the police were to search my home I can only imagine what they would make of hundreds of occult titles and collectible grimoires, not to mention my entire temple full of furniture, implements, and tools. They'd probably conclude that I was guilty on the spot, regardless of how ridiculous the charges were.