Boar heads found outside Berkeley vegetarian restaurants

BERKELEY, Calif (KGO) -- 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's 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.

The remains of the boar were found Monday morning near Shattuck and Haste streets. About an hour later, Flaco's vegetarian restaurant also found a boar's head in front of its 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 Berkeley Police Officer Jennifer Coats.

When police arrived at Herbivore's, 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 Flaco's and they 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 any cameras in the area.

Investigators say they don't know why someone would do this, but Berkeley residents think it's safe to jump to conclusions.

"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 unsure what crime category this falls into at this time.