Animal Sacrifices on the Rise in Queens: ‘Animal Hunt Is On’

Animal sacrifices are on the rise in Queens, with chickens, pigs and rats being tortured, mutilated or killed in “twisted” religious rituals in the park surrounding Jamaica Bay, the Post has learned.

In just over a month, at least nine injured animals or carcasses have been discovered at the federally managed Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel, including five live pigs with partially cropped ears.

Among the creatures recovered from the revolting scene were a near-dead baby rat tied in a bag with chicken bones, a freshly decapitated chicken head, a live hen in distress and a dead dog with a broken neck.

“The situation continues to get worse. Animal sacrifices are happening more and more every week,” Sloane Quealy, co-founder and president of Zion’s Mission Animal Rescue, told the Washington Post.

“The priests know that the hunt is open.”

One of the distressed pigs was found emaciated in a crate filled with food in July, with a deep gash on its face and its body covered in oils and spices, said Kristen Latuga, who took in the five sick pigs at her Long Island animal sanctuary, Brucie’s Angels.

Several rescuers and a local religious leader have suggested the torture was linked to a sect of Hindu worshipers who worship the goddess Kali and have practiced animal sacrifice in the area around Jamaica Bay for decades.

“This is a misinterpretation of what the scriptures say about conquering animal values,” said Acharya Arun Gossai, who heads the Bhuvaneshwar Mandir temple in Ozone Park.

“They distorted things and sacrificed a real animal rather than sacrificing the animal qualities of man.”

Jamaica Bay is a popular religious site among members of the Guyanese and Indo-Caribbean Hindu diaspora living in nearby neighborhoods, including Richmond Hill and Ozone Park.

Along this waterway, nicknamed by some the “Ganges” after India’s sacred body of water, people regularly gather to make offerings, usually flowers and fruit, and leave statues of deities and prayer flags.

This week, the Post watched Quealy and another animal rescuer, Kim Fraser, track down a trio of piglets whose ears and tails had been cropped, about 100 feet from a pair of Hindu deity statuettes sitting atop a grassy mound next to a trio of flags.

Prayer flags were spotted nearby, wrapped in the brush.

Followers of other religions whose rituals involve animal sacrifice, such as Santeria and Voodoo, have also been known to use the beaches and parks surrounding Jamaica Bay to perform bloody rites.

“It’s not a straightforward situation. There are many other faiths that practice animal sacrifice,” said Aminta Kilawan-Narine, a Howard Beach resident and co-founder of the Hindu group Sadhana, which organizes cleanups in Jamaica Bay where carcasses have been found.

The United States Supreme Court upheld the right to sacrifice animals for religious reasons in a 1993 decision.

However, under New York state law, aggravated cruelty to animals is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison.

There were no 911 calls about animal abuse in the 106th Precinct, which covers Howard Beach, the NYPD said.

But John Di Leonardo, founder and executive director of the animal rescue and advocacy group Humane Long Island, which also serves all five boroughs, said Jamaica Bay has become a “hot spot” for animal cruelty.

He estimates he has received at least a dozen calls about animal sacrifices in the Jamaica Bay area so far this year, compared with three or four for all of 2023.

“It’s a long-standing issue that’s never really been addressed,” he said, adding: “There was a big outcry in the press around 2008 … but it seems to have died down, and now it’s coming back with a vengeance.”

City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), whose district covers Howard Beach and the Rockaways, said the disturbing practice reached “a peak” this year and must end.

“Animal cruelty is a crime, and it’s something we cannot tolerate here,” she said. “I will work with my federal partners and local faith groups to put an end to this immediately.”

A spokesperson for the National Parks Service did not respond to a request for comment.