Ritualistic Foul Play Suspected in Deaths of Rabbits at School : Investigation: The 10 animals may have been killed as part of a satanic rite or a gang initiation ceremony, police say.

Authorities were seeking clues Saturday in the ritualistic slaughter of 10 black rabbits on an elementary school playground.

The incident may have been the result of a satanic ritual or a gang initiation ceremony, police said.

The rabbits were kept on a small farm cared for by children at the Golden View School. Their carcasses were found early Friday in a V formation, police said. Their skulls were crushed.

“Whoever did this doesn’t deserve to live in our society,” said Julia Kirkland, a neighbor. “Can you imagine how the kids would feel if school was in session? How do you explain something like this to a child?”

“From time to to time, for whatever reason, various pranksters do come along and pick on the animals, but it’s very infrequent,” Ocean View School District board President Lottie Hobbs said Saturday. “The residents in the neighborhood are very protective of the farm. I can’t even imagine who would have done this.”

Police Sgt. R.K. Miller said no suspects are in custody and the investigation is continuing.

About 30 bunnies are kept at the school site, authorities said. Neighbors and school staff take care of them during school vacations and holidays. Not all of the school’s rabbits got out of their hutches, so authorities are speculating that some were either let loose deliberately or grabbed quickly.

The slaughter was reminiscent of a spate of cat killings in Tustin and Newport Beach a few years ago.

Janet Hampson of Tustin Residents Against Animal Killers has attempted for years--with little success--to persuade county officials that these and other animal deaths are the result of satanic cult activity. County animal control officers have said that, absent other evidence such as satanic symbols, the attacks on cats were probably the result of foraging by coyotes.

“I haven’t come across the V before,” said Hampson, who has studied animal sacrifice and its links to the occult for several years. “This could be the work of gangs.”

“School sites often are the sites where people leave the dead animals, even if that’s not where the animals came from,” she said. “They do it for the shock value, because they know that if the mutilated animals are found there, it will generate a big response.”

Gangs sometimes use animal killings to initiate new members, or mark someone’s birthday, Hampson said. She said rabbits have been killed before in separate South County incidents.