The mystery of the headless goats in the Chattahoochee River

[Knox]

Does anybody know if the dumping has continued since 2022 when the New Yorker article was written? Tia

Why Do Severed Goat Heads Keep Turning Up in Brooklyn?

And from NBC Channel 6 in South Florida, from 2013:

Headless Goat, Roosters Found Floating in South Beach

From AL.com (Alabama) in 2014:

Headless animal carcasses found on Tybee Island, Ga. beach

Or how about this one, from 2022 from WSB-TV Atlanta:

20+ bags of decapitated animals found in woods near Athens apartment complex

 

[Charlot123]

Goat brains are a delicacy in some cultures.

Stolen animals slaughtered in residential garages entered the food supply as uninspected meat in Canada in April 2024

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-uninspected-meat-1.7184922

Goat Brain Fresh (2 Brain)

Experience the delicacy of Goat Brain Fresh, prized for its creamy texture and subtle flavor. Perfect for adventurous eaters seeking unique culinary experiences.

asianhalalmeat.ca

Everyone: please. Don't eat brains. Halal or not. Delicacy or not.

Mad cow disease, bovine spongyform encephalopathy, is transmissible to humans. In most sources you'd read that scrapies, the same prion disease in sheeps and goats, does not get transmitted to humans. However, this article indicates that it apparently, can.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and sheep brain. A report from central and Southern Italy - PubMed

The places of origin of 7 out of 8 patients with CJD coincide with the distribution of sheep-rearing in central and southern Italy, confirming the suggested link between this disease and eating and-or handling sheep CNS tissue. Since 6 of the 8 cases were women, it seems more likely that the...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Prions can't be killed by freezing. You have to basically burn them (900 degrees Farenheit). So cooking doesn't kill them. They are tiny pieces of DNA. Not even viruses. No shell. They can be "misfolded" and become dangerous, but the science doesn't know how to unfold them.

Some food practices have to be forbidden, sorry.

 

[vls12345]

I told Almonte about what was turning up in the Chattahoochee. He didn’t sound surprised. “I’m seeing more and more of the drug traffickers using Santería for protection over the last couple of years,” he said. “But that’s a lot of goats. That would mean they’re moving a lot of drugs along that highway.”

The Mystery of the Headless Goats in the Chattahoochee

Hundreds of decapitated goat carcasses have turned up in the river that runs through metro Atlanta. Are they evidence of animal sacrifice? Drug smuggling? Both?

www.newyorker.com

I do believe that Santeria and the above are the correct explanation for the goat carcasses being tossed into the river. It tracks for me.

Atlanta is a hub for drug distribution so the drugs being a connection may well be true.

Atlanta a hub for East Coast illegal drug trade as area fentanyl deaths spike, DEA says

Multiple factors that make Atlanta a good distribution hub for fentanyl, including its location on an extensive interstate system, the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and wealth, according the DEA.

www.gpb.org

“It’s pretty safe to say most of the drugs seized up and down the coast have come through Atlanta at one point, “ said Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Robert J. Murphy.

Murphy said there are multiple factors that make Atlanta a good distribution hub for fentanyl, including its location on an extensive interstate system, the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and wealth.

Older reports (maybe there are newer ones, I haven't yet done extensive looking) point out I-20 being a major corridor into/out of Atlanta.

Transportation - Atlanta HIDTA Drug Market Analysis

https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs40/40382/40382p.pdf

 

[vls12345]

Hi no greed, my vision is not the best (actually, it’s awful following possibly botched cataract surgery back in March), but when I first read your post I thought it read 120 instead of I20.

Just to clarify: the area being discussed in the New Yorker article is just south of where I-20 crosses the river, right near the Six Flags Over Georgia parking lot. This location is about 3 miles west of the the I-20 / I-285 interchange, and about 9 miles west of downtown Atlanta.

Most Atlantans I think refer to I-285 (which encircles the city) as “The Perimeter” or “The Perimeter Highway”, so the river location being discussed is about 3 miles outside the Perimeter.

Jmo

I couldn't access the New Yorker article (subscription needed).

Per your post re: location, here's where you're mentioning as shown on Google maps. The orange circle is the area where I-20 crosses the river. I highlighted downtown Atlanta in yellow for reference.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

 

[otto]

There are new immigrants in Western Canada stealing livestock, slaughtering animals in a residential garage, and selling the meat as "halal". Brains might be a delicacy. If the rest of the meat it discarded, I would question the health of the animal ... or maybe it's not "halal" after picking out the brains?

What tips us to this being new immigrant is that it is "halal" meat. That's not how Alberta beef is known, labeled, or inspected. That's new.

Truckloads of dead goats in the river sounds like ... organized crime? Backyard butchery? Where is the butchery going - who is eating it? I don't think it's voodoo.

"LeMay began looking into criminal activity in the meat industry following a CBC News report last year into cattle thefts in Alberta. He says the co-ordination it takes to steal, transport, slaughter and then sell stolen livestock has all the hallmarks of organized crime, in that it requires a sophisticated network to make it happen.

"I think it's a very serious, big deal," LeMay said."​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-uninspected-meat-1.7184922