Cats poisoned by anti-freeze across West Country
A national leading animal welfare charity has voiced its concern that a feline ‘copycat’ killer could be on the loose in the West Country.
Over the past 5 months the RSPCA have reported that 19 cats have met an untimely end after ingesting anti-freeze in the Bridgewater area of Somerset.
And over the past few weeks, another 9 cats have died in similar circumstances across Weston-super-Mare.
After suffering symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea, fits and ultimately kidney failure which are thought to been caused by swallowing ethylene glycol which is universally present in anti-freeze, all of the cats had to be put to sleep.
The RSPCA investigation is focusing on two main lines of enquiry - one that the deaths could be the work of a ‘malicious psychopath ‘ and the other being an innocent but unknown source of ethylene glycol.
A spokesperson for the charity said:-
“Geography and distance would suggest the fact that cats’ are being poisoned in both places is just a coincidence.
However, as we don’t know if this is an accident of deliberate poisoning it is possible that the person responsible read about what was happening in Bridgwater and decided to be a copycat cat killer.
Until we can find and confirm source of the poison we cannot rule out the possibility that someone is putting out ethylene glycol laced bait to target cats.”
Under current UK law any persons found guilty of bringing about excessive suffering to any animal faces a fine of up to £20,000 as well as a six-month prison sentence.