A primary school pupil went on an animal killing spree at a petting zoo last week as the horrified manager claims the young boy ‘showed no emotion after the act’.
The nine-year-old carried out the violent massacre in Hoek van Holland, a town in the Netherlands, where he killed up to nine rabbits and two guinea pigs, according to local reports.
The boy had allegedly visited the petting zoo on multiple occasions under supervision but this time he had made the journey alone.
Local media reported that the boy walked into the petting zoo late on the afternoon of March 11 and went searching for the rabbits and guinea pigs.
But in a shocking turn of events, the child ended up strangling most of them to death, in an incident of which the motives remain a mystery.
A nine-year-old boy went on an animal killing spree last week at a petting zoo in Hoek van Holland, Netherlands
He is alleged to have killed up to nine rabbits and two guinea pigs before police caught him
The manager of the petting zoo claimed the young boy ‘showed no emotion after his act’.
The animal killer was quickly caught by police and the boy’s parents arrived on the scene.
Following the bizarre incident, baffled experts have expressed their shock at the boy’s massacre and have called the incident ‘sick’.
Manager Ali Dorenbos of the Rekerhout petting zoo in Alkmaar told De Telegraaf: ‘It makes you completely sick!’
She has previously had to deal with animal abuse, recalling: ‘The sheep were shot with bows and arrows, their udders were pulled, and the goats were shaken by their horns.’
Calves were also beaten blue and chickens and ducks were hanged.
One more expert, Anne-Marie Le Buhan of the Het Geitenweitje Foundation in Laren, was also left stunned by the grisly act.
‘Horrible. How? This is very extreme. And was there no supervision?’ she asked.
The boy will not be prosecuted following the incident in Hoek van Holland because he is under the age of twelve, but reports have stated that he will be entering a care program.
‘I feel sorry for the animals, but also for the little boy who apparently feels so bad that he has to do this,’ said psychiatrist Esther van Fenema.
According to the psychiatrist, animal abuse can be a ‘worrying sign of behavioral disorder in children’ that needs to be thoroughly investigated.
‘If you kill an animal in the house; explain to the child why. Even if it is an insect. So that it learns that you don’t wring the neck of a guinea pig, which is harmful,’ she added.
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