Skinned boar heads found outside Berkeley vegetarian restaurants

BERKELEY, Calif -- Berkeley police are trying to find who left skinned boar heads in front of two vegetarian restaurants. There is shock and outrage in the community.

One skinned boar was left in front of the Herbivore restaurant in Berkeley, which doesn't have any meat on its menu.

"That's disturbing. I'm vegetarian so that makes me sad," said Mackenzie Rubin, an area resident.

The remains of the boar were found Monday morning near Shattuck and Haste streets. About an hour later, another boar's head was discovered in front of Flacos vegetarian restaurant.

"It was definitely an unusual thing. It's nothing I have seen or experienced in my almost 20 years that I have been at the police department. I'm not sure if there is some specific intent behind it, or if someone was trying to prank somebody," said Officer Jennifer Coats with Berkeley police.

When police arrived at Herbivore, the boar head was gone. They found out that people who work for Berkeley's Downtown Ambassadors cleaned it up.

But police did find the one left at Flacos and turned it in to animal control. They are trying to figure out where the animals came from, who did this and why. Police are looking into whether any helpful surveillance video exists from cameras in the area.

Investigators said they don't know why someone would do this, but Berkeley residents have their suspicions.

"That's like offending the people who eat here, trying to make fun of them because they don't eat meat," said Laronda Walker of Oakland.

"Some vegetarians already think that people who eat meat are kind of the bad guys, and it's like they're kind of keeping up with that reputation," said Rubin.

Police are not sure what crime category this falls into at this time. They said it could fall under a city littering statute.