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Police conclude there is no Croydon cat killer!

4K views 100 replies 42 participants last post by  Cully 
#1 ·
#6 ·
I wonder if the general lack of familiarity with predators and predation in the UK is partly to blame?
Predation can be pretty gruesome. We have this Disneyfied idea that a predator kills cleanly and eats cleanly but they don't. Very often kills are abandoned for multiple reasons, kills are scavenged by other creatures which can leave gruesome remains, it's not pretty.
 
#9 ·
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45588088

Its my understanding from the BBC report that the cats were killed in road traffic accidents and subsequently scavenged by foxes, not actively killed by foxes. That would make sense as predators can't risk injuries that may kill them via infection - foxy won't take on a cat when there are plenty of abandoned kebabs about and bins to raid.
 
#51 ·
SNARL have 100% disagreed with the Met's decision and will be campaigning to keep the operation open it seems. They have tons of evidence that, unless fox's grew thumbs, some of the animals have been surgically cut with knives. Don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet. From what SNARL have said, the Met are using foxes as an excuse to shut down the operation as it's been so tricky and long running.
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/croydon-cat-killer-snarl-met-police-latest/
I can't quite believe it. Think police want to employ their forces elsewhere - not enough funding? Cats not important enough.
As soon as I heard the news I thought this ^^^^^

What's really annoying now is the media coverage trivialising the story and making a mockery of it.

At the end of the day an awful lot of cats have been killed in horrific circumstances and people seem to be laughing about it. Just watched Jeremy Vine on Ch 5 and it was all a bit of a joke which was upsetting.
 
#16 ·
Don't believe this for one minute! Very fishy how all this "evidence" has suddenly come out. And putting blame on the foxes rather than the cars that hit the cats... I wonder if they are going to have another crack at getting a vote on the hunting ban
 
#39 ·
That was exactly what I thought when I heard the news. There was also a case I read about last week, which said that a fox had entered a house, gone upstairs into the children's bedroom and attacked a little girl who was asleep. The mother said that it was lucky she had her baby downstairs with her as it would have been much more vulnerable. What they didn't explain was how the fox got into the house, upstairs and into the bedroom without mum knowing about it. Why would anyone leave their outside door open? And although the child apparently needed medical attention, the hospital was not identified and there was no statement from them. Every time they want to re-introduce fox hunting, there is suddenly a spate of attacks! For three years, they have been looking for a cat killer but now, suddenly it's a combination of road accidents and foxes! Don't believe it at all.
 
#17 ·
I must admit, being the suspicious person I am, I am not convinced this is the truth. We're talking hundreds of animals here, why has it taken three years to reach this conclusion? How come there has now been a turnaround by a vet, who originally was adamant they were injuries made by a machete or sharp instrument, now saying its scavenging,and road injuries, surely there's quite a difference. Are we now to assume that there was a lot of sensationalist journalism when reporting the many cases and it is odd when so many owners were supposed to have found dead, mutilated body parts on their doorsteps, surely foxes would be more likely to drag their kill away and wouldn't someone have heard a lot of screeching if it was on your doorstep? Also, in some reports they said foxes were amongst the victims, do foxes eat other foxes?

I'm wondering if the police just don't want to spend any more money on investigations and feel they have better things to do but to say so would cause uproar amongst the animal loving fraternity and knowing that a maniac is left roaming around. I see the RSPC are also supporting their theory....hmmm! ;)

Having said that, on the other side, I do find it odd that in all this time there hasn't been any CCTV footage or evidence of any sightings of a human doing these things..
 
#19 ·
SNARL have 100% disagreed with the Met's decision and will be campaigning to keep the operation open it seems. They have tons of evidence that, unless fox's grew thumbs, some of the animals have been surgically cut with knives. Don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet. From what SNARL have said, the Met are using foxes as an excuse to shut down the operation as it's been so tricky and long running.
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/croydon-cat-killer-snarl-met-police-latest/
 
#23 ·
A fox does not open up a hutch, carefully kill the unfortunate occupant then lock the hutch door again, nor does it cleanly decapitate its prey and carefully leave the remains on the owners doorstep / front garden.

Either, the funding has been cut (most likely) or evidence has come to light that implicates something or someone which is untouchable (least likely, but possible). Lets face it, the number of videos and reports recently of people snatching cats from gardens and driveways has increased, particularly this year.
 
#38 ·
A fox does not open up a hutch, carefully kill the unfortunate occupant then lock the hutch door again, nor does it cleanly decapitate its prey and carefully leave the remains on the owners doorstep / front garden.

Either, the funding has been cut (most likely) or evidence has come to light that implicates something or someone which is untouchable (least likely, but possible). Lets face it, the number of videos and reports recently of people snatching cats from gardens and driveways has increased, particularly this year.
I'm wondering if something far more serious is going on! It has always been a possibility that the killer would eventually turn his attention to a person. If this is so then the cat killings might interfere with investigating a murder, so they've had to drop the cat case.
 
#26 ·
I don't think this is true...Must be a reason they're saying this but all the stuff I've seen, I doubt it's foxes..Maybe they just scavenged and eat the dead animals and that's the evidence they think they have?

Poor foxes getting the blame!!
 
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#27 · (Edited)
I was just talking about this to my neighbours and they said, and I agree (So I retract what I said before) that the foxes are being used as scapegoats the police just don't want to bother pursuing the open cases anymore. There is more than likely a human cat killer on the loose (my neighbours and I are cat owners) and because the police have no leads they want to close off the cases. We have foxes around here and they don't bother the local outdoor cats.

Ok I believe that foxes may pick up dead animals and eat them but I don't think foxes will mame live cats to the extent of some of the cases reported as the cat would defend itself if a fox did attack. But its unheard of, of a fox attacking a live cat (my neighbour said this) - I am not saying it wouldn't happen. Foxes and outdoor cats cross each other every night and generally they ignore each other.
 
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