March 3, 2008
Cat killer on the loose?
Woman missing three animals, two others hurt
By CHRIS DOUCETTE, SUN MEDIA
Carol Scott holds two cats yesterday that she believes have been injured. The ears of the cat in the foreground appear to be partially cut off. (Dave Thomas, Sun Media)
When one of her six cats disappeared a month ago, feline lover Carol Scott says she wasn't overly concerned.
But since then another two have vanished and two more have come home badly hurt.
And over the weekend, an apparently stray feline showed up on the Weston woman's doorstep with the tips of its ears sliced off.
Now she can't help but wonder if somebody is plucking family pets off the streets of her neighbourhood and torturing them.
'COLD WEATHER'
"I didn't think much of it at first because it happens, especially with the amount of cold weather we've had this winter," Scott, 55, said yesterday, surrounded by what's left of her kitties on the livingroom sofa of her Lippincott St. W. home.
Click here to find out more!
"But the nail in the coffin was when this one showed up," she added, gently stroking the head of the latest addition to her collection, careful not to touch the fresh-looking wounds on its ears.
Scott was becoming increasingly suspicious when Snowball went missing a month ago, then Timmy two weeks ago, and shortly after Tinkerbell.
But when she looked out her back door and saw the small black, extremely underweight cat with its ears snipped, Scott became convinced something sinister was afoot.
"At first I wondered if it was frostbite, but the cuts are too clean," Scott said. "To me, this looks like mutilation and I can't fathom why anybody would do something like this to a cat."
"I just don't understand it," she added, fighting back tears.
In recent weeks, two of Scott's three remaining cats have come home seriously injured -- one with nasty cuts on its face and neck, the other with a broken hind leg.
Her vet speculated the animals were wounded in attacks by other larger animals. But with the evidence mounting, she now believes something sinister is afoot in her Lawrence Ave. W. and Jane St neighbourhood.
And Scott is not alone.
Steven Thompson, who lives around the corner, agrees that it all seems very unusual.
One of his two cats, Mr. Big, disappeared about 10 days ago, which he said is completely out of character.
"I believe somebody has taken advantage of his friendliness," Thompson, 53, said.
ALARMED
He initially assumed someone in the area had taken Mr. Big into their house and kept him as their own. But after hearing Scott's story, he became alarmed.
Both Thompson and Scott, who regularly leaves food out for the feral cats in her community, have noticed several strays from the neighbourhood also seem to be missing.
If somebody is targeting cats in the area, Scott said she hopes the person is found so he or she can get help.
"We all know through books and television that something like this can lead to more serious things," she said, pointing out that medical experts often suggest serial killers start out torturing animals.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2008/03/03/pf-4892196.html
Topic: Cat Mutilation (Read 1508 times)
