'Rabbit-ripper of the Ruhr' leaves German detectives baffled over spate of beheaded pet bunnies

More than 40 pet rabbits have been found dead in a spree going back nine months in the heartland of what used to be Germany's industrial  powerhouse.

Animals which once frolicked in garden cages are now sharing bedrooms with their owners at night because of fears they will be the next victims of the ripper.

A special police squad has been formed to catch the killer who they believe may be a deranged Satanist making nocturnal sacrifices to the devil.

Many children who owned the rabbits are still receiving counselling after finding their beloved pets dead among the straw of their hutches.

Targets: Rabbits like these have been killed by the mystery maniac

The rabbit ripper's hunting ground is in the towns and villages around Dortmund.

In an attempt to catch what is presumed to be a specialist rabbit assassin, the force's criminal investigation department has set up a special task force called  "Cuniculus" from the Latin for rabbit - Oryctolagus cuniculus.

Oliver Peiler, a task force spokesman, said: "We have a number of officers working on the case and we are carrying out exhaustive investigations."

But he admitted this week: "We have no idea who is doing this. We are still in the   dark."  

One of the most disturbing incidents occurred over Christmas last year in a village outside Dortmund. When the owners of a pair of breeding rabbits called Fussel and Marianne went to feed their pets one morning they found the animals' corpses dumped on the ground outside their hutches. 

Both were without  heads and had been bled dry.

Police have recorded the deaths of more than 40 animals over the past nine months.

Initially the killings were limited to a few isolated incidents, but in spring the number of rabbit-cides accelerated with four new cases in  May.

The five police officers working on the case full time have interviewed more than 300 people in their search for the ripper and their is a £2,000 bounty on his - or her - head offered by animal rights groups in the region.

A decade ago a horse ripper struck fear into animal lovers across the country, killing and mutilating dozens of animals. 

Although the killings stopped, the perpetrator was never caught.

Sabine Riede, the head of a group which monitors religious cults, said she believed Satanists may be behind the rabbit deaths: "The fact that blood appears to have been deliberately drained from the dead rabbits could indicate  that  satanists were gathering material for a ritual," she said.

Volker Schütte, of the police task force, said officers were even investigating the possibility that the killers were using Google Earth to help them track down rabbit hutches in the region.

"It's not like after the war when everyone had a rabbit in his backyard – rabbits are not that easy to find these days and many of the hutches can't be seen from the road," he said.

The Ruhr is a magnet for Satanists from across Germany and the guests at  two  popular Dortmund discos - Incident and Matrix which caters for a gothic crowd - are among those who have been quizzed in the enquiry.

"It could be any of us next," said  Manfred Finger, 68, a rabbit  breeder who  has installed a laser-alarm system on his hutches. "Who could be so  terribly  cruel to such defencless creatures?"