Line #156 Main/DeadAnimalWarning


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6	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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14	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Fargo}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dead_animal_warning.jpg]]]]
15
16	->'''Michael Westen:''' Friend of mine, Cara Stagner, she has a rat problem.\
17	'''Alvaro Desantos:''' And you come here? Sounds like she needs an exterminator.\
18	'''Michael:''' Little late for that: they're ''nailed to her door''.
19	-->-- ''Series/BurnNotice'', "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS1E3FightOrFlight Fight or Flight]]"
20
21	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 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.
22
23	A character's pets are especially at risk of being targeted, especially in horror shows where pets [[SortingAlgorithmOfMortality almost never survive and are usually the first victims of the killer]]. Often combined with BreakInThreat.
24
25	Of course, this can also set off the AnimalWrongsGroup.
26
27	The equivalent when done with a human is DeadGuyOnDisplay (if done for intimidation).
28
29	See also BadPeopleAbuseAnimals. Compare KickTheDog, AndYourLittleDogToo, FingerInTheMail (sending somebody someone else's severed body part(s)). Not to be confused with ForebodingCarcass, which is when the animal has been killed either by coincidence or as part of whatever evil is going on, and is stumbled upon rather than specifically placed.
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31	----
32	!!Examples:
33
34	[[foldercontrol]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Books]]
37	* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
38	** In the lead-up to ''Batman'' #400, ComicBook/RasAlGhul sends Batman a package containing a bat with broken neck; a fairly obvious threat, as Batman puts it.
39	** In a similar vein, #1 of the post-Rebirth series of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'', Ra's al Ghul sends Damian Wayne (a.k.a. Robin) a dead robin on his 13th birthday.
40	* Parodied in ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'':
41	** Spider owns a [[MatterReplicator "maker"]] produced by a Mafia-owned company and if he tries to throw it away (its A.I. is a drug addict), severed horse heads appear in his bed.
42	** It also shows up on the very first page:
43	--->'''Spider:''' I was having a mildly paranoid day, mainly due to the fact that the mad priest bitch from across the river had started nailing dead weasels to my door again.
44	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': While ComicBook/{{Artemis}} is Franchise/WonderWoman and Diana is acting as a hero and PI under her own name she rescues a woman from a StalkerWithACrush who had killed the woman's pets and left her creepy messages with their bodies in retaliation for the woman getting engaged.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:FanWorks]]
48	* ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'': Canonically, Mrs Norris was merely petrified and hung up on a sconce as a warning, to be eventually revived. Here, she's killed and nailed to the wall. Along with her six newborn kittens. ''In the shape of a smiley face.''
49	--> '''[[spoiler:Diarymort]]''': Do I Have Your Attention Yet?
50	* ''Fanfic/TrueLoveIsNeverAStraightPath'': It's clearly a sign of Helen's SanitySlippage in Chapter 28 that she sees fit to send Brittas several bags of rat corpses drenched in pools of blood, alongside a letter threatening to both send Brittas into bankruptcy and outright murder Laura.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
54	* ''Film/{{Blackway}}'': After he starts stalking Laura, Blackway murders her cat.
55	* In ''Film/{{Blastfighter}}'', Wally and his redneck buddies slit the throat of the fawn Tiger saved and leave it in the front seat of his car. Later, they rig up a dead racoon so it swings down at hits him in the face when he opens the door.
56	* In the interviews in ''Film/{{Blooded}}'', it is mentioned that the first serious threat Lucas received for his views on hunting was a dead fox dumped on his doorstep.
57	* ''Film/CityOfTheDead'': On returning to her room after the dancers disappear, Nan finds a dead bird on her bed: impaled by a silver pin shaped like an arrow. Later, Patricia finds one and her grandfather tells her it the mark of the witches.
58	* 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.
59	* In ''Film/TheDry'', Aaron leaves the police station and discovers that someone has dumped a dead dog on top of his car; the blood dripping down the windscreen. Later, a flashback reveals that a calf with its throat slit had been dumped on the doorstep of the Falk family home when he was a teenager, accompanied by [[BrokenWindowWarning a rock through the window]].
60	* In ''Film/DumbAndDumber'', the thugs sent after Harry and Lloyd kill their parakeet as a threat. They don't quite get the message, not knowing that they'd crossed the bad guys and thinking that the bird's head [[TheDitz just fell off on its own]].
61	* In ''Film/FairGame'', the hunters leave a dead, skinned kangaroo sitting in the driver's seat of Jessica's ute.
62	* As part of her reign of terror in ''Film/FatalAttraction'' when she goes [[{{Yandere}} off the deep end]], Alex kills Ellen's pet rabbit and puts it into the Gallaghers' pressure cooker to boil.
63	* A variation in ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' when Amsterdam hangs a dead rabbit on a fence in Paradise Square. It's the symbol of his father's old gang, the Dead Rabbits, and both a call to arms for the immigrant community and a message to Bill the Butcher that he's not going to give up.
64	* In ''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.
65	* 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.
66	* ''Film/Revenge2017'': Not so much a warning as a perverse practical joke, but Richard wakes up the sleeping Stan by flinging a dead cat on to the windscreen of his car. Stan understandably screams as he awakens to a thump and blood splattered across his windscreen.
67	* In ''Film/Snapshot1979'', Angela's stalker plants a pig's head in her bed.
68	* ''Film/SpenserConfidential'': When Spenser retells the tale of how he ended up in prison and its connection to "Tracksuit" Brentwood, he mentions Brentwood performing strong-arming tactics on a poor student who was protesting his employer's deals (and then he killed her), which included nailing the student's beloved cat to her home's door.
69	* In ''Film/TuffTurf'', Morgan pursues a gang leader's girlfriend, and finds a dead rat hanging by its tail in his locker as a result.
70	* 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.
71	* ''Film/{{XX}}'': In "Her Only Living Son," the cult nails a dead squirrel to a tree outside Cora's home.
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Literature]]
75	* ''Literature/ThreeHundredSixtyFiveDays'': In the third book, Massimo gets increasingly jealous about Laura spending time with Nacho, prompting him to kill her pet dog and send the corpse to her in a box. He claims Nacho did it [[spoiler:and Laura initially believes him, breaking things off with Nacho]].
76	* ''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.
77	* In ''Literature/{{Daughters of Darkness\|1996}}'', Mrs Burdock's murderer kills one of her pet goats, impales it with dozens of wooden stakes and leaves the corpse on the porch for her great-nieces to find, in an attempt to make them leave Briar Creek.
78	* ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'': In ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'', Mikael Blomquist bonds with a cat while staying at the Vanger estate. He wakes up one morning to find that the villain has killed the cat and left its mutilated remains on his doorstep.
79	* In one of the most famous scenes of ''Literature/TheGodfather'', a Hollywood producer wakes up with the head of his prized racehorse in his bed as proof of what will happen [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse if he doesn't give into Don Corleone's demands]].
80	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
81	** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', Filch's cat is hung up as a warning after the Chamber of Secrets is opened. Subverted since Mrs. Norris is just petrified, and she's revived later.
82	** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' has two cases, one shown and one implied, both in {{Pensieve Flashback}}s:
83	*** Bob Ogden from the Ministry of Magic visits the Gaunt home and finds a snake nailed to the door. The house is occupied by some decidedly unlovely characters.
84	*** When Dumbledore visits the orphanage where [[BigBad Tom Riddle]] was raised, 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. [[OffOnATechnicality 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.
85	* In the short story "Knox" by Creator/HarlanEllison, the KKK-type racist terrorist group nails their enemy's dog to his door.
86	* In ''Literature/NeedfulThings'', Nettie's dog, Raider, is skewered with a Swiss army knife and left with the note for her to find.
87	* ''Literature/NickVelvet'': Sandra Paris encounters this when scoping out a target in the SavageSouth in "The Theft of the Bald Man's Comb":
88	-->''All I got for my trouble was a couple of rifle shots that were so close that I could feel the breeze. Back in town someone let the air of my tires, and the next morning I found a dead dog in the back seat of my car. That was enough for me!''
89	* ''Literature/SolarPons'': In "The Adventure of the Sealed Spire", one of the stunts performed during the {{Gaslighting}} of the rector is the killing of friend's pet cat and planting the body in the rector's holdall.
90	* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': In ''Forest of Secrets'', Cinderpaw grabs a magpie from the fresh-kill pile and is about to take it to Bluestar, but finds out it's rotten and filled with maggots. Fireheart fearfully wonders if it's an omen from [=StarClan=] that Bluestar's leadership is rotting away from the inside, as she has recently been devastated by the betrayal of Tigerclaw, one of her oldest friends. In the following book, Bluestar becomes more paranoid that all of her Clan are traitors and no longer trusts any of them.
91	* Subverted in ''Literature/TrickstersDuet''. The raka spy network discusses nailing dead rats to people's doors as a threat. Since their spymaster's HonoraryAunt is a FriendToAllLivingThings and would never forgive her for it, she decides to use baskets of live rats in their bedrooms instead.
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
95	* In ''Series/ThirteenReasonsWhy'', Montgomery De la Cruz leaves a dead rat in Zach's gym bag.
96	* ''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.
97	* ''Series/{{Badger}}'': In "The Price of a Daughter," a disemboweled badger is dumped in Tom's garden as a warning.
98	* 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.
99	* ''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.
100	* ''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-]].
101	* ''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.
102	* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS05E07 Dead Inside]]," Stella receives a dead rat in the mail: a warning to her that the murder of the 'rat fisherman' should remain an unsolved case.
103	* 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.
104	* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' episode "Feelings" has Dorothy harassed by her high school trying to pressure her into passing a failing football star so he can win a big game. At one point, she received a fish wrapped in newspaper and while she makes light of it by quipping to have white wine with it, ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Sophia]]'' is upset by this, believing that they would harm her. This is justified as the latter's from Sicily and ''knows'' what's the big deal about this gesture.
105	* 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.
106	* ''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]].
107	* 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.
108	* ''Series/TheLibrarians2007'': After Frances upsets the local community (yet again), a pig's head is shoved into the library's book return chute.
109	* ''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.
110	* In the ''Series/MidnightCaller'' episode "Take Back the Streets," drug dealers kill an anti-drug protestor's cat and leave the body on her bed.
111	* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'':
112	** In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS9E7 Death in Chorus]]", artist Connor Simpson is shocked when a pig's heart is nailed to his cottage door.
113	** In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS10E4 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.
114	** In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS18E3 Breaking the Chain]]", local councilor Mary Appleton is sent a cow's heart in the post.
115	** In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS20E5 Till Death Do Us Part]]", the first VictimOfTheWeek is being trolled by someone who is sending her dead animals with ribbons tied around their tongues.
116	** In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS24E1 The Devil's Work]]", someone comes by the yurt. Jordana gets up and opens the door but doesn’t see anyone. Then there is a knock on the door. Jordana looks outside and sees a wrapped package on the ground. It is a dead raven.
117	** In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS24E4 A Climate of Death]]", unpopular Texas oilman Rooster Harlin returns to his room at the pub to discover that someone has deposited a dead rat on his bed.
118	* The second episode of ''Series/SavageRiver'' ends with a bull's head being dumped in front of Terry's house as a warning to Miki.
119	* ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'': Parodied "Poll'd Apart", in which the ''So Random!'' cast does a sketch mocking a gossip columnist that's been spreading rumors about them. Following the broadcast, she sends them a chain of sausages with the emblazoned words "YOU'RE - DEAD - MEAT".
120	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Hunters", Dr. Klein believes that the mutilated sheep carcass found outside the prehistoric cave was placed there by Jim Hilsen, whose housing development was delayed by the discovery of the cave, in order to intimidate her and the rest of the archaelogical team. However, it turns out that it was killed by the ghosts of the prehistoric hunters depicted on the cave walls.
121	* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': The VictimOfTheWeek in "Young Gods" is Gideon Frane was a [[DomesticAbuse domestic abuser]] responsible for 97 incidents of harassment against his ex-girlfriend. One of these acts was drowning her pet cat and leaving it own her doorstep for her to find.
122	* 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.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Music]]
126	* ''Music/MurderBallads'' by Music/NickCave: Happens to Professor O'Rye in "The Curse of Millhaven". This is the one crime that SerialKiller VillainProtagonist who describes herself as 'a monster' [[EvenEvilHasStandards denies responsibility for]].
127	-->''Then Professor O'Rye from Millhaven High\
128	Found nailed to his door his prize-winning terrier\
129	Then next day the old fool brought little Biko to school\
130	And we all had to watch as he buried her''
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Religion]]
134	* ''Literature/BooksOfSamuel'': Saul cuts an ox apart and has its dismembered bodies part sent to all the cities of Israel, a warning that the same dismemberment will happen to the livestock of any who do not fight against Nahash the Ammonite. Three hundred thousand soldiers answer the call.
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
138	* ''Creator/{{Lovestruck}}'':
139	** ''VisualNovel/QueenOfThieves'': In Zoe's second season, Dead Rat King leaves a bunch of dead rats strung up under a bridge for her and the heroine to find on their gondola ride. A few episodes later, Zoe is testing out her full-room hologram projector when it gets hijacked and the surroundings change to a dungeon filled with dead rats.
140	** ''VisualNovel/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.
141	* ''VisualNovel/ChoicesStoriesYouPlay'':
142	** In ''VisualNovel/TheRoyalMasquerade'', Damon Fierro, who looks down on Julia due to her commoner background, kills a wild animal that is the symbol of her house to intimidate her into dropping out of the competition for the Cordonian throne.
143	** In ''VisualNovel/RisingTides'', somebody leaves a dead fish in Harriet's car after both her and her activist sister get their names dragged through the mud for protesting climate change (specifically the fish dying off) and incurring the wrath of the town's local newspaper in the process. What makes this more threatening is that A) Harriet and her sister are protesting because the fish die-off would put her family out of business and B) the fish ''has a knife stabbed through it''.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Webcomics]]
147	* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': Sette cut up the pet rat of one of her da's gang members and put it in his soup after he harassed her to get him to leave her be.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Web Video]]
151	* ''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.
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:Western Animation]]
155	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "The Long March" Francine gives a less-than-perfect review to a crazed Uber driver, who sends her dead fish with "FOUR STARS?!" carved into it.
156	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In two episodes, Homer is given this warning. [[ThreatBackfire The only thing they achieve]] is [[ExtremeOmnivore give Homer something to eat]].
157	** The "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner" episode has food 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.
158	** Another episode had a detective mentioning that Homer had been sent a dead fish wrapped in newspaper. Upon unrolling the paper though, it appears that he had already eaten that, as well.
159	[[/folder]]

Context Main / DeadAnimalWarning