You could FOIL information on the number of animal parts found scattered around the city's parks, or you can just do a quick review of Gothamist's extensive coverage. Look man, if you find a piece of animal lying around the ball field or draped across a drinking fountain or whatever, snap a photo and send it to us. You know we'll always run it.
Today in the ol' mailbag we have this horrific close-up of a desiccated cow tongue pinned to a tree in Prospect Park. Here's a closer look!
(Lisa Yriart)
Unlike goat heads, we actually do have some background on why a person might go to the trouble of handling a piece of bovine mouth. Here's an excerpt from a story we ran last year following the discovery of some decorative cow tongues hung around Inwood Hill Park like rank mistletoe:
A nailed animal tongue, in the Inwood case likely from a calf, can be used to “instruct the spirits to stop someone from gossiping, from spreading harmful rumors or the like...or to stop a witness from testifying in court,” said Elizabeth McAlister, PhD, a professor of religion at Wesleyan University who’s written books about the African Diaspora spirituality. “It’s a defensive sort of prayer.” Normally photographs, hand-written notes, or other paraphernalia would be found with the tongue, but none was observed by David Burg, president of the urban habitat conservation group WildMetro, who co-led the walk.
“I have seen tongues nailed to trees twice before in recent years," he said. "Once there were some 40-plus tongues nailed to trees in the southern part of Pelham Bay Park.”
The tongue was spotted near the Prospect Park Bandshell this morning by the tipster's "very excited dog."
"A cow tongue filled with giant needles attached to a tree," Lisa Yriat wrote. "Was also wrapped in brown paper. Here is a photo of the tree, where you can clearly see the mark from where the tongue was attached to it, and the tongue full of needles."
A Tongue Full Of Needles. Prospect Park is metal as fuck.
