Two sicko teen brothers set a beautiful hawk on fire, urinated on it and dragged it on the pavement with their bicycle, Long Island cops said.
The two, aged 14 and 15, then bragged of their despicable act to a neighbor, who rushed the half-dead bird, bleeding and gasping for air, to a veterinarian.
But the red-tailed hawk – a foot tall with a 2-foot wing span – had to be euthanized.
Police last night called it one of the worst cases of animal torture in Suffolk County history.
“It’s really beyond belief. Nobody knows what possessed them to do this,” said Lt. Bill Madigan.
The horrific torture was discovered by a neighbor of the boys on Seymour Road in Medford.
“She saw a bird attached to a rope and being dragged along the road by these kids on their bike,” Madigan said.
On closer inspection, the neighbor, Vanessa Smith, realized the hawk was alive, as it pathetically tried to flap its blackened, injured wings.
She wrapped it in a shirt and took it to the Selden Animal Emergency Services, where a vet determined it could not be saved.
Madigan said the boys, who attend local schools, found the hawk, possibly injured, sitting in a yard, grabbed it and set it on fire as it squawked in pain.
Then, to extinguish the flames, they unzipped their pants and urinated on their winged victim.
The brothers, with their parents in tow, surrendered yesterday and were charged as juveniles with animal torture in the Aug. 28 incident.