ABERDEEN — A Lyndhurst man pleaded guilty to the beheading of four ducks on Cliffwood Beach at Lakeshore Drive.
Dion Magalias, 31, pleaded guilty to a disorderly persons charge and was fined $500 in Aberdeen municipal court July 7. He will not go to jail.
Magalias was sought for obtaining the ducks, not killing them, said Stuart Goldman, chief humane law enforcement officer for the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), Eatontown.
"It was the religious practice of Santeria. Other members of the religion that were practicing could not be identified and he pleaded guilty and there was a fine," Detective Christopher DeSarno said.
An anonymous call on June 1 alerted police to the dead ducks. Magalias was arrested and released on his own recognizance June 13.
Items left at the scene, including flowers and fruit, gave police the impression that a religious group might have been involved, Detective Sgt. Richard Derechailo had said.
Some of the ducks were painted and the way the ducks were laid down made investigators believe it was part of the Santeria practice of asking for cleansing of a spirit, Goldman said.