Burglar butchers and eats racing pigeons

JONKOPING, Sweden, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A thief broke into a pigeon breeder's coop in southern Sweden and butchered, cooked and ate at least 12 birds, police said.

Several more birds appeared to have been stolen, The Local reported. The theft occurred in Raslatt, a suburb of Jonkoping.

The victim breeds the pigeons as racing birds that sell for up to $150 each. The owner said the carnage she found in the coop and an adjoining kitchen is unprecedented with blood and birds' heads, claws and feathers scattered everywhere.

"This is sick and barbaric," she told a local newspaper, Jnytt. "It feels horrible. There was blood and feathers everywhere."

Police said the thief apparently decapitated the birds, boiled the bodies and ate them. To add insult to injury, the dishes used by the thief were left unwashed.

The thief apparently took several birds on departure.