Boys nabbed for torturing chickens, blowing up frogsBy Franci Richardson
Saturday, May 14, 2005 - Updated: 08:58 AM EST
ANDOVER - Three middle-school boys were arrested after making a videotape of a ``joy kick'' where they blew up frogs with firecrackers and blow-torched chickens to death at a summer camp that for 41 years has acquainted children with nature.
``The way they came in and killed the chickens - I'm appalled,'' said Jim Loscutoff Sr., the star Celtics player who retired in 1964 and founded Evergreen Camp at the edge of the Harold Parker State Park the following year. ``It's a joy kick.''
One young man, whose name is being withheld because he is juvenile, admitted his involvement in the sordid crime. ``It started out innocent,'' he said. ``We just wanted the roosters to chase us so we threw sticks at them, but it got too far over the line. It was a stupid thing because those animals didn't deserve it.''
The boy's mother said he is grounded indefinitely.
``What he did,'' she said, ``is totally, totally unacceptable. I love animals.
``I cannot protect my son. It's really terrible. My first reaction was to tell police to take me in because I wanted to beat the (expletive) out of him.''
The recovered digital camera video shows the Doherty Middle School boys - 12, 13 and 14 years old - laughing as they ran around the 10-acre camp saying ``let's go kill this one over here'' as they violently whipped``defenseless little chickens'' with a fishing rod before they sprayed them with flames. They also struck the animals with lacrosse sticks.
The video also shows the boys spraying swastikas on frogs, cutting them open with a knife and then blowing them up by putting firecrackers in their mouths, Andover police Lt. Kevin Winters said.
``In the 30 years I've been doing this, I've seen a lot, but this is very disturbing to watch,'' said Winters, who has viewed the video.``They were kids on a vandalism spree.''
After they were arraigned on a slew of animal cruelty and vandalism charges yesterday in the juvenile division of Lawrence District Court, the boys were released to their parents.
Jim Loscutoff Jr.'s daughter, Allison, found the video and watched it as her father, who runs the camp, cornered the three boys and called police after the trio ran into a house in an upscale development near the camp Thursday.
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