History Main / DeadAnimalWarning

Want to send someone a message stronger than just [[BrokenWindowWarning throwing a brick through their window]]? Then throw a dead animal through their window instead. Or nail it to the their door. Or just dump it on their door step. Whatever method you chose, the message will be clear: that you are willing to kill and that they could be next.

To make it even more personal, the animal could be a beloved pet. Often combined with BreakInThreat.

** The "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner" episode has good critic Homer gain the ire of the local restaurateurs due to his negative reviews of them. Luigi mentions that he had been sent a [[Film/TheGodfather horse's head]]--which he then ''ate'' and still gave a bad review to.

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' hwo cases, one shown and one implied, both in {{Pensieve Flashback}}s:

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' a flashback shows Dumbledore visiting the orphanage where [[BigBad Tom Riddle]] was raised, and the matron discusses an incident in which he was accused of hanging another child's pet rabbit from the rafters after the rabbit's owner annoyed him. The accusations had to be dropped because they couldn't prove that he climbed into the rafters to do it, not realizing he was a wizard.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "Dead Inside," Stella receives a dead rat in the mail: a warning to her that the murder of the 'rat fisherman' should remained an unsolved case.

** In the lead-up to ''Batman'' #400, Ra's al Ghul sends Batman a package containing a bat with broken neck; a fairly obvious threat, as Batman puts it.
** In a similar vein, #1 of the post-Rebirth series of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'', Ra's al Ghul sends Damien Wayne (a.k.a. Robin) a dead robin on his 13th birthday.

* ''Film/{{XX}}'': In "Her Only Living Son", the cult nails a dead squirrel to a tree outside Cora's home.

* ''Series/{{Badger}}'': In "The Price of a Daughter", a disemboweled badger is dumped in Tom's garden as a warning.

* ''Series/{{Cannon}}'': In "To Kill a Guinea Pig", mobsters attempting to strong arm a medical researcher into including a particular prisoner in her trials (so he can be killed) kill her pet monkey and hang it from a tree outside her house.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': In "Uninvited", the CSI team investigate when an entirely is reported as having been missing for a month. While investigating, they discover blood on the front door step, and eventually learn that the family dog had been killed and dumped on the doorstep.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "Dead Inside", Stella receives a dead rat in the mail: a warning to her that the murder of the 'rat fisherman' should remained an unsolved case.
* In ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' episode "A Muddy Road", Malvo kills the dog of his blackmail victim and leaves behind a CutAndPasteNote with the demand of an even bigger ransom. Message received.

* ''Series/InspectorGeorgeGently'': In "Breathe in the Air", a doctor's dog is killed as part of a harassment campaign that ultimately [[DrivenToSuicide drives her to suicide]].

** In "Death in Chorus", artist Connor Simpson is shocked when a pig's heart is nailed to his cottage door.
** In "The Axeman Cometh", a campaign of harassment against Gary Cooper sees a dead sheep dumped on his tennis court, a gutted pig placed in his trout stream, and a skinned rabbit strung up in his garage.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action ]]

* ''Film/TheGodfather'': Jack Woltz wakes up with the severed head of his prize horse Khartoum in his bed as proof of what will happen if he doesn't give into Don Corleone's demands.

* ''VisualNovels/ReigningPassions'': Midway through Amara's first season, the heroine finds a dead hummingbird in her bed, along with a threatening note. Piama notes that since hummingbirds are considered sacred, whoever left it must have really meant it.
* [[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Video]]
* ''WebVideo/EchoRose'': Along with a note telling her to stop investigating, Echo also received the skull of an animal, a targeted strike as the sender knew she was an animal-loving Empath.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** In the lead-up to ''Batman'' #400, Ra's al Ghul sends Batman a package containing a bat with broken neck; a fairly obvious threat, as Batman puts it.
** In a similar vein, #1 of the post-Rebirth series of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'', Ra's al Ghul sends Damien Wayne (a.k.a. Robin) a dead robin on his 13th birthday.

* In ''Film/FairGame'', the hunters leave a dead, skinned kangaroo sitting in the driver's seat of Jessica's ute.

* In the film version of ''Film/CrazyRichAsians'', Amanda and her friends pull a horrible prank on Rachel, leaving a gutted bloody fish on Rachel's bed with a message calling her a gold-digging bitch.
* In ''Film/{{Ratter}}'', Emma returns to her apartment to find her cat Clover dead. While others try to convince her that this could have been an accident or natural causes, Emma is convinced it is the work of her stalker.
* ''Film/{{Blackway}}'': After he starts stalking Laura, Blackway murders her cat.
* In ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane'', Jane begins denying Blanche food, until she serves Blanche's dead pet parakeet—and, at a later meal, a dead rat—to her on a dinner platter.

* In ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]]'', Mikael Blomquist bonds with a cat while staying at the Vanger estate. He wakes up one morning to find the villain has killed the cat and left its mutilated remains on his doorstep.

* ''Literature/FourPastMidnight'': In the short story ''Secret Window, Secret Garden'' Mort's cat is killed with a screwdriver and left as a warning by his StalkerWithoutACrush. [[spoiler: John Shooter is revealed to be in Mort's head the whole time. Mort killed his own cat.]] The [[Film/SecretWindow film adaptation]] changes it to a dog.
* In ''Literature/NeedfulThings'', Nettie's dog, Raider, is skewered with a Swiss army knife and left with the note for her to find.

* ''Series/InspectorGeorgeGently'': In "Breathe in the Air", a doctor's dog is killed as part of a harassment campaign that ultimately [[DrivenToSuicide drives her to suicide]].

* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryRoanoke'': Among the many disturbing events warning Matt and Shelby away from the house in the first episode is a dead, bloody pig being left on their doorstep.
* ''Series/TheLibrarians2007'': After Frances upsets the local community (yet again), a pig's head is shoved into the library's book return chute.
* After Monroe (a Blutbad) and Rosalee (a Fuchsbau) get married on ''Series/{{Grimm}}'', a Wesen hate group protests their union by nailing the corpse of a fox (the animal Fuchsbau are based on) to her apothecary shop.
* The ''Series/BurnNotice'' episode "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS1E3FightOrFlight Fight or Flight]]" has a cocktail waitress, Cara, be the only conscious witness to a drug cartel member beating a pizza delivery boy senseless for rear-ending him. The cartel starts intimidating her, including nailing a dead rat to her front door. Fortunately, Cara's boss happens to be Michael Westen's landlord.
* Subverted on ''Series/VeronicaMars''. After the bus crash at the start of season two, Keith investigates the wreckage of the bus to find a dead rat taped under one of the seats. Keith and Veronica initially conclude that the rat was a message to someone who was planning to rat out someone else. But later, Keith figures that the purpose of the rat was the stench forcing certain students off the bus to protect them.

* ''Series/{{Marple}}'': In ''Endless Night'', Ellie discovers a dead bird with a threatening message pinned to it on her doorstep as part of a campaign of harassment aimed at her.
* ''Series/{{Cannon}}'': In "To Kill a Guinea Pig", mobsters attempting to strong arm a medical researcher into including a particular prisoner in her trials (so he can be killed) kill her pet monkey and hang it from a tree outside her house.
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'':
** In "Death in Chorus", artist Connor Simpson is shocked when a pig's heart is nailed to his cottage door.
** In "The Axeman Cometh", a campaign of harassment against Gary Cooper sees a dead sheep dumped on his tennis court, a gutted pig placed in his trout stream, and a skinned rabbit strung up in his garage.

* In ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' episode "Purgatory" after coming back from his suspension and going undercover to bust some fellow dirty cops, Det. Goren opens up his drawer to find a dead rat inside of it.

* In ''Series/ThirteenReasonsWhy'', Montgomery De la Cruz leaves a dead rat in Zach's gym bag.

* ''Series/{{Community}}'': PlayedForLaughs in "Introduction to Teaching". Jeff finds Annie crying and she shows him what Professor Hickey gave her: a dead rat pinned to a card with CutAndPasteNote reading "You're next". Jeff is shocked, but it turns out this is Annie's [[JuryAndWitnessTampering Witness Intimidation]] project and what she is upset about is the grade: [[TheBGrade an A-]].

* ''Series/{{Community}}'': PlayedForLaughs in "Introduction to Teaching". Jeff finds Annie crying and she shows him what Professor Hickey gave: a dead rat pinned to a card with CutAndPasteNote reading "You're next". Jeff is shocked, but it turns out this is Annie's [[JuryAndWitnessTampering Witness Intimidation]] project and what she is upset about is the grade: [[TheBGrade an A-]].

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* ''Litearture/HarryPotter'':