Farm animals were found slaughtered Friday at the internationally known Catherine Ferguson Academy for pregnant girls and teen mothers on Detroit's west side.
The toll, according to Gina Damron in the Detroit Free Press, was seven chickens and five goats. The animals appeared to have been bludgeoned or had their necks hacked.
No suspects are in custody.
A day earlier, the charter academy was the scene of a parents' protest over curriculum and how the school is managed, WXYZ and other media report, but officials don't link the protest to the crime.
The former public school has featured an adjoining farm and red barn for years. It was a pioneer in the city' agricultural movement and has been featured in the international media as a positive force in Detroit. In additional to the small animals, a horse and pony frolicked in its fields in years past.
Students grow vegetables, milk the goats, make cheese and pasteurize milk.
The attack on the farm’s animals is frightening, charter school Principal Asenath Andrews told Damron.
“It is the most heinous, despicable, malicious act I’ve ever personally witnessed,” she said. “It’s like being in a bad, bad movie.”
Detroit police and the Michigan Humane Society are investigating.
The school is at Selden and Lawton, near I-96 and Martin Luther King.
