Another Spell to Identify

So here's another round of "is it a spell or isn't it?" Involving, appropriately enough, more dead things. Whether this is some sort of sacrifice or flat-out necromancy, though, I'm not really sure. Last week several headless animals were found outside a jail in Tampa, Florida. Authorities believe that the killing may have been part of some sort of magical ritual, perhaps connected in some way with Santeria.

A white cardboard box was left outside the entrance that contained two roosters, a dove, a goat, and two baby chicks: each of the animals were dead and headless. The beheaded animals have left some in Tampa to question whether they were part of a ritualistic witchcraft killing. It wouldn’t be the first for the Tampa Bay area that seems to have an annual sprout of headless animals leaving many to wonder if the perpetrators are connected to Santeria.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Officer Detective Larry McKinnon spoke with ABC Action News and spoke about the ritualistic nature of the find, “It was a disturbing discovery, and we feel like it’s some sort of ritualistic killing. Someone was clearly sending a message to someone inside the jail.” Detective McKinnon also commented on another gruesome discovery made by the Tampa Police department just one week prior to the box of beheaded animals: A cows tongue pierced with approximately 100 nails.

Detective McKinnon stated, “A cows tongue with nails in it has been identified as a message sent to somebody to ‘Keep your mouth shut.”

So the big question is whether this is simply intended as some sort of warning issued to some individual currently incarcerated, or if it's part of a real magical ritual intended to produce some practical result. As in many of these cases, both/and is probably also a reasonable answer.

Is this something that anyone recognizes, or for that matter might have performed in the past? I haven't read up on Santeria in a number of years and I don't think any of the rituals I studied were all that similar to this one. My understanding is that animals killed in Santeria rituals serve as offerings rather than some sort of magical link to a target. Of course, since I'm not intiated into that tradition and have only read a couple of books there's a lot that I don't know about it. There's also some overlap between Santeria, Voudon, and Hoodoo in terms of ritual technology, so I'm thinking a practitioner from one of those traditions could be the caster as well.

And just as a point to whoever wrote the news article, Santeria is not "witchcraft." Just sayin'!