TAMPA, FL -- Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies are investigating a break-in at Alonso High School, near Westchase, where several animals raised for a Florida State Fair exhibit were killed and others are missing.
School district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe says, "It appears someone opened the cages and released the rabbits and the chickens." Two chickens were found dead, and school officials speculate they may have been killed by raccoons. Four show rabbits have not been found. Their owners, who are students at the high school, believe they were killed.
Cobbe said the animals were raised by students at the school and were scheduled to be entered in an exhibit at the Florida State Fair, which opens in Tampa later this week.
Two of the students who lost rabbits posted pleas on Facebook asking for information about the crime.
David Gray, an Alonso parent called it, "Mean-ness. Kids just don't understand how mean they can be."
