Mutilated animals left on pro-life pregnancy center’s property in Orlando

Boston, Mass., May 16, 2023 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The FBI and local police have opened an investigation after three mutilated animals were left on the property of a pro-life pregnancy center in Orlando, Florida, last week.

On May 10, a staff member from the facility discovered the decapitated corpses of a “very large” chicken, baby lamb, and another “large bird” in front of the clinic, according to Bob Perron, executive director of the Catholic-based JMJ Pregnancy Center.

When the staff member informed him about the dead animals, Perron thought it was a joke.

“I mean, who would even think that that’s possible?” he told CNA Tuesday.

A police officer came and made a report of the dead animals and animal control took them away.

“We think there was probably some kind of ritual that was involved,” Perron said.

He said that there was “almost no blood” on the animals.

No patients witnessed the dead animals, he added. A doorbell camera may have recorded part of the targeting, he said, adding that law enforcement is examining the footage.

According to Perron, Bishop John Noonan of the Diocese of Orlando sent a priest to bless the building the next morning. The clinic is not affiliated with the diocese.

All of the clinic’s services are free and it mostly serves minority women, he said.

Perron said that he thinks the clinic was targeted “because we don’t support or refer for abortions because we know that that hurts women and their families.”

“We are just a medical clinic trying to help moms,” he said.

There have been more than 60 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers since May 2022 and only six reported arrests. Many Catholic churches, a maternity home, political organizations, billboards and advertisements, a political figure, and a memorial have all also come under pro-abortion attacks since last May.

A yearlong string of attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers across the nation began after it was reported in May 2022 that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, which happened in June.