Dog heads' mystery solved

2005-12-16 18:36

Tokyo - An 82-year-old butcher has admitted to dumping 30 dog heads in a moat near the main detention centre of the Tokyo police department.

Most of the severed heads were decomposed, some of them skeletal.

On Friday, Japanese public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News agency reported police were questioning the man, who runs a neighbourhood meat shop.

He has apparently told the police he imported the dogs - frozen and already separated into heads and bodies - from China to sell as food.

Reports quote the butcher as saying all the torsos had been sold and, as there was little interest in the heads, he dumped them into the moat, hoping they would be eaten by the fish.

An official at the nearby Kameari police department said Toyko police are investigating the bizarre incident, suspecting the violation of animal protection law and vandalism.

Toyko police say the shape and size of the heads suggests they were of adult dogs. Investigators believe no human heads are included in the discovery.

Police plan to remove the heads from the water.

- AP