Dog swallows meat filled with pins
New York, NY (US)Incident Date: Sunday, Apr 9, 2006
County: New York
Disposition: Open
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
There may be more than meats the eye to the needle-studded beef tongue that sent a Manhattan dog to the vet.
The tongue, found in Central Park, may have been left over from a "hoodoo" spell designed to keep a witness from testifying in court, experts in the African-American form of folk magic told the Daily News yesterday.
"It's a very old and popular spell used to silence people," said Catherine Yronwode, 60, proprietor of the Lucky Mojo hoodoo-supply shop in Forestville, Calif. "It can be used in any case where there's a witness that's going to speak against you."
The bizarre object was discovered after lawyer Martha Redding, 38, let her black Labrador, Milo, off his leash in the park on the morning of Aug 9 and then noticed the dog gnawing on a package wrapped in brown paper and ribbons.
When she pulled the package away, she saw it contained a beef tongue studded with straight pins and hat pins, some up to 3 inches long. Redding rushed the dog to veterinarian Andrew Kaplan, who induced vomiting to get the 31 needles Milo had ingested out of the dog's stomach. Milo has recovered.
The vet said that several people called his office yesterday, telling him that the tongue sounded like part of a Santeria ritual.
A reporter from the Portland Tribune tipped The News to a similar case in January, when needle-studded cow tongues were found in an Oregon park. The names of undercover police officers scheduled to testify in a drug case were found written on papers imbedded inside.
"I realized this wasn't an issue of someone trying to hurt an animal as much as a ritual dealing with witchcraft," said Multnomah County Animal Control Officer Larry Crabb of the Oregon case.
"It's an interesting explanation - and creepy," said Redding. "I guess it's kind of ironic that it was found by a lawyer's dog." References« NY State Animal Cruelty Map
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