Fla. Python Eats Two Cats, Cats Mutilated in NJ, Six Cat Heads in Ontario
Fla. Python Eats Two Cats, Cats Mutilated in NJ, Six Cat Heads in Ontario
October 4, 2013 10:17 AM By
All in all this has not been a banner week for cats in the news.
According to police in Martin County, Florida, 911 responders found a 10-foot-long albino Burmese python after receiving a call on October 1, 2013, from a concerned Port Salerno resident that there was a large snake lurking in his yard. After locating and catching the snake, they also reportedly discovered the regurgitated carcasses of two cats, an adult and a kitten, that the large reptile had recently swallowand apparently been unable to digest. No one yet knows if the cats were pets or strays. The snake was given to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission where it will be checked it for a chip an in effort to locate the snake’s owner.
Meanwhile a woman in New Jersey’s Pemberton Township found the carcasses of two mutilated, decapitated black cats in her driveway. Officials as well as residents are reportedly struggling to understand why anyone would have done such a thing. The woman who found the cats has a reputation for feeding strays, so there is speculation that the cruel display was some sort of demented message or warning to her. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but Burlington County SPCA Chief Richard Forberg said that the woman “has reported over the last two months the strays have been disappearing.” The timing of the mutilations is close enough to Halloween that police have not ruled out a satanic ritual at his point.
Feral cat hissing at you.
The discovery of six severed cat heads found in Whitchurch-Stouffville in Ontario, Canada, has spurred an investigation by police and also an appeal for help from residents. York Regional Police Constable Andy Pattenden announced that the cats’ deaths were not accidental nor were they “the result of a predatory animal.” The grisly finds started on August 12, 2013, when a severed cat head was found near a daycare. Since then there have been five more all found in September, all found in the same general neighborhood, and according to investigators, all showing evidence of having been placed there.
So what do we conclude from all this? 1) If a 10-foot python is hungry enough, it will choke down one or more cats, though in the event of a police chase it may not be able to keep them down. 2) Beware of possible deranged Satanists in Pemberton, New Jersey, and 3) something very disturbing is going on in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.
So for the time being, maybe it’s not a bad idea to keep your cats inside until authorities sort this stuff out.
