HOUSTON – It's a traumatizing and gruesome discovery that has animal control officers in Houston looking for the person responsible for beheading a goat and leaving the remains in a local park.
The remains were discovered Tuesday in Robert C. Stuart Park in southeast Houston.
The remains were found around 11 a.m. by a woman who was part of a group conducting volunteer trail maintenance at the park.
She has asked that we not reveal her identity.
The woman said they thought they were looking at the carcass of a dog or skunk at first.
Then they realized it was a goat and it had suffered a disturbing fate.
"It was a little terrifying. Then to make matters worse is I looked closer," she said. "Since it was white it was hard to tell, but there were zip tie knots covering the goat's feet."
The obvious questions are who would do such a thing and leave the remains in an area that could hardly be described as well-hidden?
Was this part of some sort of ritual -- or was it simply an act of cruelty?
For the person who made this discovery it doesn't really matter.
"At the end of the day it is inhumane, and unacceptable," the woman who first spotted the remains said. "And it doesn't justify any sort of killing."
BARC told KPRC that they don't have any suspects and it may be tough to find any.
There are no cameras in the park and they have no way of telling who may have left the remains or whether the animal was killed there or killed somewhere else and dumped in the park.
Anyone with any information about the case is asked to call the BARC animal shelter.