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ANDOVER -- Three Andover boys videotaped themselves setting a chicken on fire and beating other chickens with lacrosse sticks and fishing rods at a day camp for children in the southeast corner of town.
"These were very vicious acts," police Lt. Kevin Winters said.
The boys, ages 13, 14 and 15, face charges of cruelty to animals for the attacks at Camp Evergreen off Jenkins Road, near Harold Parker State Forest. They face additional charges for smashing aquariums and windows and damaging chicken coops and tents at the camp, causing more than $2,000 in damages, police said. Their names were not released because they are juveniles.
Police said none of the boys was enrolled at the camp, which opens June 27.
The camp is owned by Boston Celtics legend Jim Loscutoff, 75, who played for the Celtics from 1955 to 1964.
His son, camp director Jim Loscutoff Jr., said he had noticed things out of order at the camp for a couple of weeks. The chicken coop was found unlocked, and items were moved around on the grounds. Yesterday morning, he found some of the chickens "basically ruffled" and one of them with a wound.
"I thought a raccoon got in or something," he said.
But later in the day while sitting by the pool near the back of the grounds he spotted a teenage boy throwing rocks at a neighbor's truck in front of the camp. He said he chased the boy and two others to a nearby house where he said one of the boys lives.
Neighbors helped Loscutoff watch the house until police arrived, he said.
Meanwhile, his daughter, Allison Loscutoff, 19, who also works at the camp, found a bag with a video camera and tape on the camp grounds. When she watched the tape, she became "so distraught she was brought to tears," said Loscutoff, who said he did not watch the tape himself.
The tape showed the boys using a lighter and an aerosol can to set fire to one of the chickens, killing it, Winters said. The boys tossed another chicken into a pond and threw rocks and other items at it, said Winters.
The attacks may have happened over two days, most of them early yesterday, he said.
There were six chickens on the property. Winters said two of the chickens, in addition to the one burned, may not survive.
"These weren't just chickens, they were pets," said Loscutoff. "They are critters with names that follow you around and we would pet and the kids (at the camp) would pet and hold."
With police still on the way yesterday, Loscutoff said, one of the boys ran back to the camp in an attempt to retrieve the tape. Instead, he found Loscutoff's daughter crying.
"He told her "I am 14 years old, don't yell at me,'" Loscutoff said incredulously.
Police at first charged the three boys only with trespassing and malicious destruction of property over $250. After watching the tape, they added charges of cruelty to animals and possession of a BB gun under the age of 16 without a parent present, Winters said.
The boys were to be arraigned today in Lawrence Juvenile Court.
http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20050513/FP_002.htm
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