A cat killer who mutilated hundreds of cats between 2015 and 2018 prompting a major police investigation is still at large and has killed hundreds more, according to a charity involved in the case. Police launched Operation Takahe after hundreds of cats were foud dead over a three-year period.
Some had had their heads and tails cleanly removed. The missing body parts would sometimes be placed where the rest of the body was found days later. Police Closed Operation Takahe in 2018 saying there was a lck of evidence of human involvement, reports The Mirror.
But Tony Jenkins, founder of charity South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL), which helped police with the investigation, says similar cases are still being reported, and "the cat killer is still out there".
He said: "There's been at least 200 or 300 victims since the 2018 case closure. To be honest, I’ve lost count and I’ve stopped recording.
He said mutilated cats have been reported from across the country, with cases reported even through lockdown. Police said fox DNA was found on some of the cats before the case was closed in 2018.
But Mr Jenkins says vets that helped SNARL say 'it definitely wasn't foxes'. He added: "Two or three months’ later when they closed the case, we actually did have as many 20 serving police officers ring us up and go ‘There’s no way foxes did that’."
The so-called UK Cat Killer had a series of signature tells, he added, although victims had also included rabbits, foxes and swans. They usually left the carcasses on display, often in people's back gardens, with either their head or tail removed; or both.
The cuts would be very clean with little or no blood around the fur or the wound.
Mr Jenkins said: "What’s synonymous with all of these is that when the head’s removed, it’s always right at the base of the neck - so the head and the neck was missing.
"When we’ve had heads found or returned, it’s been cut at the top of the neck… so there’s no neck bone. It’s almost like they might be keeping the neckbone as a souvenir.
"In every case, it’s always no neckbone attached. Every victim including - rabbits and foxes - always their neck bone is missing."
Victims had also been found in places where there was maximum impact. For example, outside a window.
In November lasat year the carcass of a decapitated cat was found in the middle of a garden lawn, facing the bedroom window. "I remember one was a little old lady, and she saw it from her living room window," said Mr Jenkins.
"Her daughter was the one who contacted me, because she couldn’t go out and recover the body - it was just too much. When I got there, I chased off a fox that was licking the head wound."
There was also a case where the head and tail of a cat was found on top of someone's car, on their driveway. The body was later recovered around the corner.
"We think a fox jumped up and dragged the body off, not being interested in the head or the tail," he said.
"But because bodies are left out, there’s always that’s danger that a fox’ll come along and interfere - either take it fully or have a nibble on it."
That would explain why fox DNA was found on victims in scientific studies, he said.
In the initial investigation, veterinary pathologists found the cause of death in 25 victims was blunt force trauma, such as being hit by a car. Police then said scavenging by wildlife was the "likely cause" of cat mutilations.
CCTV footage was found for three separate cases showing foxes carrying bodies or body parts of cats, all from 2017. One of those cases involved a cat's head being found in a school playground.
Another was from a witness that found the body of a cat with no head or tail next to her house. The witness checked the video footage and saw a fox drop the cat in the position it was found.
However, SNARL still believes the deaths are human-related. He said the lack of injury to claws and paws show the cats could not have been hit by cars.
"Even if it was road traffic accidents and then foxes, why don’t we get cases right across the country?," he said. "Why don’t we get it in France… or in Germany?"
Mr Jenkins said they're still not any closer to finding the suspect. He said: "Realistically, despite our best efforts, we’re not getting any closer to finding the killer.
"I still don’t believe it’s foxes; I definitely think it’s at least one person doing it - possibly a small group of people." He urged cat owners to keep their felines indoors at night, as a lot of cases were reported first thing in the morning.
The Metropolitan Police declined to comment on claims the UK Cat Killer was "still out there".
