July 10, 2008

German police are investigating more than 40 cases of rabbits being beheaded and drained of blood. (Pet Pulse Photo Illustration by Mike Lloyd)

DORTMUND, Germany -– A special German police task force is investigating a string of more than 40 rabbit slayings, in which the bunnies have been beheaded and drained of blood.

Authorities have speculated that the killings, which began last year, could be the work of satanists because of how they were killed. Since April, five officers in the small town of Witten have been investigating the case full-time, according to Spiegel Online.

"This task force is a lot like what we do when investigating murders," Witten police spokesman Volker Schutte told Spiegel Online. "Unfortunately, we still haven't found a hot lead."

Police say officers have interviewed more than 300 people about the killings. Animal rights groups in the region have posted a reward, equal to $3,800 U.S. for information leading to the arrest of the killer.

Spiegel Online reported on the fate of Fussell, a 3-year-old rabbit that was jerked out of his cage last Christmas with his sister, Marianne. Both were decapitated and bled dry, their lifeless bodies left behind, discovered the next morning by their owners.

Since then, 22 similar cases have occurred almost weekly in Dortmund, Germany’s seventh-largest city, and in surrounding areas.

"We have a number of officers working on the case," Oliver Peiler, spokesman for Dortmund Police, told Spiegel Online. "We really have no idea who could be doing this. We are investigating intensively, but so far we are in the dark."

After a few isolated cases, there has been an increase in rabbit murders since the spring, police say. The similarity of the crimes leads them to suspect a single person or small, well-organized group is responsible.

Sabine Riede, who runs a group devoted to monitoring religious sects in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, told the paper, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, "There is a possibility that young Satanists could be involved."

The fact that the blood is apparently drained from many of the rabbits could indicate, Riede said, that Satanists are gathering material for a ritual.

“The person must have a very good knowledge of the area," Schutte said. "It's not like after the war when everyone had a rabbit in the backyard. They aren't that easy to find, and many of the cages can't be seen from the road."

Therefore, speculation is that whoever is responsible could be using Google Earth to find victims, Schulte says. The computer program provides detailed satellite photographs that might be powerful enough to allow hutches to be located in people's gardens.

"We aren't discounting anything at this point,” Schutte said.

In March of 2007, a woman in Columbus, Ohio, described by authorities as a serial animal killer, confessed to slaying 650 animals. Maureen McLaughlin said she did it because she had lost faith in the animal adoption system, according to investigators.

In a written confession, McLaughlin said that during a five-year period she killed hundreds of animals from central Ohio that were given to her. McLaughlin said she would put the animals in a crate that she would then lower into a barrel filled with water. She would then hold the crate under water until the animal drowned.

People told police they gave McLaughlin the animals because they thought she was going to find a good place for them.

Researchers, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies nationwide link animal cruelty cases to suspects who progress into being human serial killers.

“It is no secret to us in this age of enlightenment that the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and David Berkowitz all delighted in torturing animals before moving on to human prey,” said Dr. Randall Lockwood, former vice president of Training Initiatives for the Humane Society of the United States.

“In the case of the Columbine shootings, these boys did not even wait until adulthood,” Lockwood said. “They graduated from animal abuse to killing their classmates as teenagers.”

In a study of 57 families being treated for incidents of child abuse, 88 percent also abused animals, according to the American Humane Association. In two-thirds of the cases, it was the abusive parent who had killed or injured the animals to control a child. In one-third, the children had abused the animals, using them as scapegoats for their anger.

Tell us what you think about “German Police Investigating Serial Rabbit Killings” below. Share your favorite videos by clicking on the ZootooTV tab. Send us your story ideas by e-mailing us at news@zootoo.com or by calling us at 877-777-4204.

The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Spiegel Online and Pet Pulse reporter Joey Wahler contributed to this report.