An 18-year-old youth was arrested on Wednesday for sending a package containing the severed head of a Chihuahua dog through the post, Pretoria police said.
”It was apparently related to satanic belief,” said Inspector Paul Ramaloko.
The Pretoria resident was handed to police by his parents on Wednesday afternoon.
A urine test had revealed that the boy had drugs in his system, said chief inspector for the Tshwane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), Marizda Kruger.
She said he had initially told her that he sent the dog’s head as a scare tactic to someone he had met in a chatroom on the internet. The person had apparently angered him.
He later told police that it was related to satanic belief.
”This is obviously a very disturbed young man who needs help,” Kruger said.
The Chihuahua belonged to the his grandmother. The boy claimed to have severed the dog’s head by himself while it was alive.
”This is a person who psychopathically lied … I don’t think he could have done it alone,” said Kruger.
The youth is due to appear before the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court soon on charges of cruelty to animals and the possession of drugs.
The dog’s severed head was discovered inside a parcel at the Kwaggasrand Postnet in Pretoria West on Tuesday afternoon and the matter was reported to the SPCA. — Sapa