In a Sad and Violent Dénouement to a Long and Happy Life, Cleo Is Brutally Slain and Mutilated in a South London Park, Reigniting Fears that the Croydon Cat Killer May Have Struck Again

Although Elderly, Cleo Still Had an Awful Lot of Life Left in Her 

"The cat... was discovered in an unnatural position in the park with a severed head and her abdomen cut open from the right side of her chest to just above the intestines."

-- Lee Ricketts of the RSPCA

Cleo was a beautiful, twenty-year-old brown and white female who had spent her entire life with the same owner. The mere fact that she had lived for so very long and was in such good health is proof that her unidentified owner had loved her dearly and had taken especially good care of her. 

On the evening of Thursday, September 21st she went outside as was her custom but, unlike on all those previous occasions, this time she never returned. At around 11 a.m. the following day her lifeless body was found by a passerby in Maryon Wilson Park on Thorntree Road in Charlton in the borough of Greenwich in southeast London.

Even more disturbing, she did not die an easy death but rather she had been decapitated and her abdomen sliced open. It is difficult to imagine a more painful, gruesome, and horrifying way for her long and happy life to have ended.

"This was a sad and disturbing discovery for the member of the public who found this cat and absolutely devastating for her poor owner," "Rickety" Lee Ricketts of the RSPCA told My London.com on September 30th. (See "Elderly Cat Found Dead with Head Completely Severed in South London Park.") "The cat... was discovered in an unnatural position in the park with a severed head and her abdomen cut open from the right side of her chest to just above the intestines."

Although sheep, goats, pigs, horses, deer, and ducks reside in the park, it is extremely unlikely that any of them would have had either the desire or the means to have killed and dismembered Cleo. While it is not known if the facility is open to vehicular traffic, it seems unlikely that she could have been run down and killed by a hit-and-run motorist and then ripped open by an animal.

Forensic experts should have been able to have determined if the lethal damage inflicted upon her had been done by either a knife or some other sharp object as opposed to the teeth and claws of either a fox or a dog. Additionally, residual DNA left on her wounds should have shed some light on the perpetrator.

A 2018 Map of Where Most of the Killings Had Occurred Up Until Then

Deplorably, the RSPCA is either behaving as its usual incompetent and uncaring self or unwilling to publicly disclose what it knows. "We don't know at this stage if she was predated on by another animal or if this was a deliberate act by a person but we are appealing for information to see if anyone may have any information," Ricketts ludicrously appealed to the public via My London.com.

First of all, absolutely nobody, animal or man, is about to come forward and confess in a million years. Secondly, it would appear even from afar that the RSPCA has all the forensic and DNA data at its disposal that it ever will need in order to make a determination as to either who or what killed Cleo.

The only obvious reason for the RSPCA's publicly professed cluelessness is that it has been too cheap and lazy to even have examined Cleo corpse for forensic evidence. It did, however, scan her remains for an implanted microchip and that is how that it was able to have identified her and located her distraught owner.

"The owner is understandably heartbroken and desperately wants answers as to what happened to their (sic) pet," Ricketts acknowledged to My London. "Cleo was relatively healthy for an elderly cat and had been a much-loved pet for two decades."

Identifying and bringing the culprit to justice will not bring Cleo back but her owner is most definitely entitled to an explanation as to what evil befell her. Regrettably, it is highly unlikely that she is going to receive much in the way of satisfaction from the thoroughly discredited RSPCA.

The organization's appalling lack of candor has in turn fueled suspicion that Cleo possibly could have been another victim of the Croydon Cat Killer who since 2014 is alleged to have killed and mutilated as many as five hundred cats in and around south London. Additional killings and mutilations have occurred in Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire and suspicious deaths also have been reported as far north as Northamptonshire and Manchester.

Boudicca Rising of SLAIN and Tony Jenkins of SNARL

In Cleo's case, Charlton is a scant twenty-one kilometers northeast of the village of Croydon in the borough of the same name via the A222 motorway and therefore well within the killer's hunting ground. Scotland Yard, assisted by the late Mike Butcher and others from the RSPCA, belatedly opened a three-year  investigation dubbed Operation Takahe into the killings in 2016 and during that period it allegedly devoted two-thousand-two-hundred-fifty man hours (about two-hundred-eighty-one, eight-hour days) and £140,000 to the effort.

Of that total, £6,000 went to forty-two necropsiers, £800 to reevaluating them for a second time, and another £1,300 conducting tests on the victims' fur. Compounding an already difficult investigation, there apparently were not any eyewitnesses to any of these violent killings and that in itself is astounding in a city the size of London.

For what it is worth, Scotland Yard also maintains that it never uncovered any forensic leads, identifiable patterns, and only three worthwhile pieces of CCTV surveillance footage. Yet, in spite of that paucity of evidence, it nevertheless concluded in September of 2018 that all the cats had been run down and killed by hit-and-run motorists and then mutilated by foxes.

Last year, researchers at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in London subjected thirty-two of the dead cats to necropsies, CT scans, and swabbed them for the presence of DNA evidence belonging to foxes, dogs, and badgers only to end up concurring with Scotland Yard that the vast majority of them had been killed by hit-and-run motorists and and afterwards scavenged by foxes. They also concluded that the foxes had killed ten of the cats outright, eight others had died of either cardiac or respiratory failure, six had died from blunt force trauma (most likely motorists), one of them had been poisoned with antifreeze, and one had died of liver failure. With six of the cats, the veterinarians were unable to pinpoint the cause of death.

It is unclear from the literature, but presumably the thirty-two cats that they examined were in addition to the forty-two that Scotland Yard had looked at earlier. Even so, seventy-four necropsies constitute considerably less than twenty per cent of the known victims and that it turn makes both Scotland Yard's and the RVC's studies considerably less than conclusive. (See the New Scientist, December 9, 2021, "London Cat 'Serial Killer' Was Just Foxes, DNA Analysis (sic) Confirm.")

Aggrieved cat owners in south London immediately denounced both studies as utter nonsense. "We have expert evidence to back this up, over the last three years, we have discounted over fifteen-hundred incidences as non-human related," Boudicca Rising, formerly with South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL) but now with the South London Animal Investigation Network (SLAIN), declared to the Daily Mail on December 18, 2018. (See "Police Spent £140,000 and Two-Thousand-Two-Hundred-Fifty Man Hours to Determine Victims of So-Called Croydon Cat Killer Had Been in Fact Run over and Attacked by Foxes.")  

Teddy, a Lionhead Rabbit, Was also Killed and Mutilated

Despite Scotland Yard's assertion to the contrary, there is most definitely a discernible pattern of cats being divested of their heads, ears, tails, and legs, and their abdomens sliced open. There even have been reports of foxes being killed and mutilated as well as a beautiful lionhead rabbit named Teddy.

In some instances, severed body parts and even collars have been inexplicably returned to either the scene of the crime or to owners' gardens days, weeks, and even months later. "We had one case where a rabbit (presumably Teddy) was killed and, six months later, his head was returned to his garden in pristine condition," Rising related to the Daily Mail earlier on September 29, 2018. (See "They Framed Mr. Fox!") "That is not the work of foxes."

In another example, after an absolutely adorable eighteen-month-old tortoiseshell named Squiggles disappeared from her home in Addlestone, thirty kilometers southwest of London in Surrey, she later was found dead and mutilated. "She had both of her ears and tail cut off, one of the back legs was removed and she had been sliced from the neck all the way done," her then thirty-one-year-old owner, Hayley Gray, told the Daily Mail on December 18, 2018. "Foxes don't carry knives."

A similarly horrifying fate befell a longhaired brown and white tom named Theo from the village of Catford, nine kilometers southwest of Charlton in the borough of Lewisham, in April of 2021 when he was decapitated and divested of his tail. "It is so clearly not a road traffic accident or foxes," his then twenty-five-year-old owner Katherine Hughes told The Mirror of London on May 21, 2021. (See "Pet Owners Think 'Croydon Cat Killer' Is Back after Another Feline Is Slain and Mutilated.") "Foxes would not take the heads and bring them back. There would be more blood, claw marks or teeth marks."

She likewise does not believe that hit-and-run motorists are involved in the killings. "If a cat was hit by a car you would see dirt and broken bones," she added.

In June of 2018, Graham and Karen Young of Merstham, sixty-four kilometers southwest of Charlton in Surrey, lost their beloved nineteen-year-old tuxedo Bounce when he was killed, mutilated, and left in a neighbor's driveway. "I'm a trained butcher and recognize when flesh has been cut or torn and there is no way that my cat's head and tail were removed by a fox," he averred to the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018. "There were no impact marks, the head and tail were cut off cleanly with a blade and a week later, the tail was returned in exactly the same place. It was horrific."

This Headline in the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018 Said It All

He accordingly has formed his own ideas concerning what cruel fate befell Bounce. "The vet thought Bounce could have been poisoned and mutilated, as there was no blood loss," he continued. "Whoever did this waits until the animal is dead and the blood has congealed. Unless foxes are carrying knives, there's no doubt in my mind that a person did this."

Given that body parts decompose rapidly, especially if they are left outside during warm weather, those that have been later returned to owners, such as the Youngs, surely must have been refrigerated during the interim otherwise there would not have been anything left of them to have returned. Even more telling, foxes do not own iceboxes.

In October of 2017, forty-four-year-old Jayne Galloway, a hairstylist from Potters Bar, fifty-two kilometers northwest of Charlton in Hertfordshire, lost her five-year-old brown tom Taz to a killer. "We (she and her neighbor Mark) just stood staring at the body," she related to the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018. "There was no blood, but his tail had been cleanly cut off and his front left paw had been flattened as though he'd been trapped in a vice. His back leg had been snapped and (one of ) his ear(s) had been cut off cleanly."

Like all of the owners interviewed by the Daily Mail and The Mirror, she does not believe for one moment Scotland Yard's and the RVC's claims that foxes were to blame for the mutilation of Taz. "There was no way he'd been in a fight," she concluded. "I'm annoyed that the police have come out with this rubbish about foxes."

In response to those criticisms, Henny Martineau of the RVC has countered by maintaining that foxes attack cats' heads and tails because they have weak jaws. "So they are going to target areas that are easy to remove," she swore to the New Scientist.

She also contends that the absence of blood on the cats' wounds can be explained by fox predation. "The mutilation occurred after the animal had died, so it would not be bleeding after death," she told the New Scientist.

Lovely Squiggles Was Killed and Mutilated in 2018

Some of her fellow veterinarians outside the RVC have not been so easily bamboozled, however. "We've had ten to fifteen cats come in to us over the past few years with no heads, no tails, and the wound has been incredibly clean," Nicola Bromley of Grove Lodge Vets in Worthing, West Sussex, testified to the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018. "The injuries are not consistent with a road traffic accident, where there would be scuffing, pelvic fractures and crush injuries. Nor are they consistent with foxes attacking or scavenging."

She then continued on to deliver a very different picture of animal predation than the one foisted upon the public by Martineau. "When an animal attacks or eats another, the wound is scruffy, there's a lot of chewing on the bone and contamination. With the bodies where the heads and tails are removed, you'd expect a fox to pull out the innards, but these animals don't seem to have that," she concluded. "These injuries are consistent with a blade being used. I can't see any logical answer to these deaths other than human involvement."

A spokesman for Streatham Hill Veterinary Surgery in the borough of Lambeth in southwest London concurred. "We have seen several of these bodies brought in to us. They have all consisted of clean, surgical-type amputations and beheadings," that individual  told the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018. "They were not done by foxes or wild animals."

There is, of course, a world of difference between viewing the body of a recently killed and mutilated cat as opposed to a cadaver that has been refrigerated for either months or years. Likewise, veterinarians who have had years of experience examining the mutilated corpses of cats should be in a better position to more accurately evaluate them as opposed to the eggheads at the RVC and the dishonest dunces at Scotland Yard who not only are novices in this field of endeavor but, more importantly, are prejudiced against cats and their owners.

Tony Jenkins of SNARL has raised two additional areas of concern. First of all, he has pointed out that these atrocities have continued unabated during the pandemic. "There was no decrease in these killings in lockdown when there were less (sic) cars on the road," he told The Mirror. Secondly, he has noted that although there are motorists and foxes all over England, these killing and mutilations are occurring in predominantly south London.

Not surprisingly, Kevin Parsons of the University of Glasgow has a rejoinder to that. "Croydon is on the edge of London so it may be happening due to new interactions and encroachments," he told the New Scientist. "But it could also be that these are badly behaved foxes for the time being and such behaviors will eventually be selectively removed from the population as we remain in contact." 

The Way They Were: Theo and Katherine Hughes

To muddy the waters even further, Trevor Williams who has studied foxes for more than forty years as founder of The Fox Project in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, takes exception to not only Parsons' and the RVC's conclusions but also to the lack of integrity displayed on the part of Scotland Yard. "One forensic scientist said some of the chops were made by foxes' teeth. Yet they were very precise cuts: foxes don't have the kind of teeth and mouth (sic) that can do that," he argued to the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018. "The police now say they feel they have no reason to believe there is a human involvement, although they've given me reason to understand differently when I've been consulted in the past."

Jenkins additionally has not only dismissed the RVC's findings but also called into question the integrity of them. "I don't think anyone really believes that foxes would cleanly remove the head and tail from a dead cat despite the rather inconclusive research published by the Royal Veterinary College a few months ago," he wrote September 14, 2022 on SNARL's Facebook page. "There is clearly something not right about the so-called authorities' investigations to these killings."

As to what that "something" possibly could be, an unidentified practitioner at Whiteley Village Vet Centre in Fareham, Hampshire, has an idea. "I feel that this is more to do with case-closing statistics than finding the truth," that individual theorized to the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018. "I'm very glad the case is still being privately investigated by SNARL as, until foxes learns to drive and handle scalpels and shears, they are not responsible."

Oddly enough, the RVC has unwittingly lent a certain amount of credibility to that assertion. "Given the link between animal abuse and domestic violence, human intervention had to be ruled out," Martineau and her colleagues wrote in the Abstract to their December 6, 2021 paper published in Veterinary Pathology. (See "Fox (Vulpes vulpes) Involvement in a Series of Cat Carcass Mutilations.")

Even that is a controversial matter. For although the authorities like to gas about a link between cruelty to animals and attacks upon humans, they quite obviously do not believe that any such nexus exists and they demonstrate that conclusively every day by so stubbornly refusing to investigate, apprehend, and punish animal abusers.

It thus would appear that both the RVC and Scotland Yard set out from the very beginning to disprove any human involvement in the killings and, not surprisingly, that and nothing else is precisely what they found. C'est-à-dire, neither organization gives so much as a hoot about either cats or their owners and so long as human corpses are not turning up on the streets of London and elsewhere they are not about to act.

Graham and Karen Young Holding a Painting of Bounce

As far as the RSPCA is concerned, it is content to carry on with its much-practiced deaf, dumb, and blind routine. "The experts still believe that a small number of the incidents in Croydon, which initiated this investigation, are suspicious so our investigation remains open," a spokesman for the charity told the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018. "The RSPCA always maintained an open mind when it came to this investigation."

Although the minds of its staffers may be open, their treasury is locked up tighter than Fort Knox and they surely must have by now grown callouses on their fat, lazy asses for sitting on them and doing absolutely nothing for so long. As it has proven time and time again in the past, the RSPCA is only too happy to go along with whatever tune the cops, politicians, scientists, and capitalists happen to be calling at any particular moment and to hell with cats, their owners, and all the other animals that it is sworn to protect.

Scotland Yard, the RVC, and the RSPCA may have turned deaf ears to the anguished pleas of assistance coming from Jenkins, Rising, Gray, Hughes, the Youngs, Galloway, and all the other owners who have lost cats but they have found an ally in Tory member of Parliament Elliot Colburn of Carshalton and Wallington in the borough of Sutton, which borders Croydon on the east, who is on record as calling for Scotland Yard to reopen its investigation into these killings. In an interview with The Mirror he even went so far as to term the police's conclusion that foxes had killed and scavenged the cats as "fanciful."

After all this time and hundreds of dead cats, it is staggering to say the least just how little agreement there is as to who and what is responsible for their deaths and mutilations. To listen to the opposing sides' versions of events, it would seem as if they were talking about two entirely different matters.

First of all, supposedly intelligent individuals should be able to determine the difference between wounds inflicted by a human wielding a sharp knife and the jagged ripping and tearing of the flesh made by the fangs of foxes. Secondly, since all hit-and-run motorists intentionally target cats, they aim for their heads and consequently leave them mutilated beyond recognition with their eyes and brains crushed out of them and that, apparently, has not been the case with those killed in south London. 

Thirdly, it has not been disclosed where the victims' bodies were discovered, whether on streets and roads or on lawns, and how far from home. Fourthly, it has not been announced but presumably the victims were primarily domesticated cats as opposed to those that were homeless.

That in itself is rather odd because it is doubtful that a hungry fox would care about the socio-economic status of its prey. Clearly, the English's aptitude for the ancient arts of close observation and astute deduction are not what they used to be during the days of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Miss Jane Marple.

Taz of Potters Bar Was Killed in October of 2017

Fourthly, how did the killer get his hands on them? Two possible explanations readily present themselves. First of all, if as Scotland Yard and the RVC maintain they were run down and killed by a motorist, that individual could be stopping and then mutilating them. 

A more likely scenario is that the perpetrator is using food in order to lure them into traps before removing them from the area. He then kills them at some remote location and later returns their mutilated corpses. 

He additionally is likely collecting trophies, such as severed ears and tails, which he refrigerates and then returns at a much later date. (See Cat Defender posts of December 8, 2017 and February 28, 2018 entitled, respectively, "The Abduction, Brutal Slaying, and Diabolical Mutilation of Runa Leaves Her Owner Devastated and Strikes Fear into the Hearts of All Cat Lovers Living in a Small Town in Switzerland" and "The Hunt for Runa's Sadistic Killer Takes an Unexpected and Bizarre Turn but, Owing to the Polizei's Refusal to Take the Case Seriously, an Arrest Remains a Long Shot.") 

On the other hand, since the vast majority of the victims had been socialized, they could have gone more or less voluntarily with their assailants. For example, San Jose Cat Killer Robert Roy Farmer apparently simply picked up some of his victims and then stuffed them into his backpack during a two-month killing and mutilation spree in the Cambrian Park neighborhood of the city that lasted from September of 2015 until early October of that year. He also sexually assaulted some of them.

One of his victims was a seventeen-year-old longhaired, orange-colored cat named GoGo belonging to Miriam Petrova that he stole on September 21, 2015. Although that abduction had been recorded on a surveillance camera, he was not apprehended until the following month when the police accidentally stumbled upon him sleeping in his car in the parking lot of a Home Depot on Hillsdale Avenue.

A subsequent search of his vehicle uncovered the remains of a dead cat. (See WKGO-TV of San Francisco, articles dated September 30, 2015, October 2, 2015, and October 8, 2015 and entitled, respectively, "San Jose Woman Fears Cat Killer on the Loose, "Police on the Hunt for Cat Killer in San Jose," and "Man Accused of Kidnapping, Killing Cats in San Jose.")

 Robert Roy Farmer Stealing GoGo on September 21, 2015 

Ironically, Farmer is the son of a former captain in the San Jose Police Department. In July of 2017, he was sentenced to thirteen years in jail for killing twenty cats and attacking another one. (See WKGO-TV, July 14, 2017, "Mixed Emotions after San Jose Cat Killer Sentenced to Sixteen (sic) Years in Jail.")

In a glaring example of just how dearly jurists love serial cat killers, Farmer was released from jail earlier this year after having served only half of his sentence. (See WKGO-TV, March 4, 2022, "San Jose Man Who Tortured, Killed at Least Twenty-One Cats (sic) Released a Month Early into Supervised Program.")

Even more disturbingly, Farmer is far from being the only serial cat killer; au contraire, this world abounds with them. For instance, in and around Olympia in Washington State during 2017 and 2018, the Thurston County Cat Killer stole, killed, mutilated, and then returned the corpses of at least fourteen cats. He never was apprehended and consequently is still at large. (See Cat Defender post of November 23, 2018 entitled "The Thurston County Cat Killer Is Allowed to Get Away with Stealing and Carving Up at Least Fourteen Cats Thanks to the Blasé Attitude and Ineptitude of the Law Enforcement Community.")

In Brighton in Sussex, seventy-one kilometers south of Croydon, former Royal Navy gunner Steven Bouquet was convicted last year of killing nine cats and maiming seven others. It is believed, however, that he in all likelihood killed many more cats.

As was the case with Farmer, he was apprehended thanks to the efforts of an aggrieved owner and a member of the public who caught him flagrante delicto on a surveillance camera as opposed to any contributions made by either the Brighton and Hove precinct of the Sussex Police or the RSPCA. (See the Daily Mail, July 30, 2021, "Brighton Cat Killer Steve Bouquet, Fifty-Four, Is Jailed for Five Years for Killing Nine Cats and Maiming Seven More During Nine-Month Animal Cruelty Campaign," The Argus of Brighton, June 9, 2022, "Brighton Cat Killer 'May have Attacked over Forty Cats'," plus ITV of London's in-depth video documentary of June 9, 2022 entitled "How to Catch a Cat Killer.")

It additionally is conceivable that he could have been responsible for some of the victims attributed to the Croydon Cat Killer but since the authorities and the English media have so hopelessly confounded the two cases the truth likely never be known. Besides, Bouquet took with him to his grave whatever he knew about the killings when he died in jail during January of this year. (See the BBC, January 19, 2022, "Jailed 'Brighton Cat Killer' Steven Bouquet Dies in Hospital.")

Robert Roy Farmer also Sexually Attacked His Victims

Societies, such as England and the United States, which rely heavily upon brutal policemen in order to control their populations at home and imperialistic war machines to impose their will upon foreign countries breed serial cat killers much like individuals and groups that practice incest give birth to genetically warped children. Organized athletics with their promotion of violence, alcohol, and drugs likewise churn out scores of utterly worthless individuals who abuse animals, women, and children.

Being every bit as dishonest and hypocritical as the day is long, Americans routinely vent their spleens on street criminals while simultaneously remaining as quiet as church mice when it comes to the far weightier offenses than cops, the military, politicians, capitalists, Wall Street, religious groups, and the scientific community perpetrate every hour of the day against the animals, Mother Earth, and individuals. Yet, nobody is willing to acknowledge that a causal connection even could exist between these two classes of criminal behavior.

Accurate statistics pertaining to feline mortalities are impossible to come by but, apparently, the number of killings and mutilations has decreased in recent years owing to both the pandemic as well as the neighborhood patrols initiated by SNARL and SLAIN. That in turn has served to reinforce Boudicca's suspicions.

"We have a feeling he's watching what we're doing," she speculated to the Daily Mail on September 29, 2018. "Why would foxes stop scavenging bodies in the area we're patrolling -- unless they've learned how to use Facebook?"

That in turn segues into the thought provoking question of why Scotland Yard and the RSPCA refused to deploy undercover officers and surveillance cameras in south London? Quite obviously, neither force either believed or cared that someone was killing and mutilating hundreds of cats.

None of the foregoing criticisms of Scotland Yard, the RVC, and the RSPCA in any way diminish the sobering reality that with nine million residents behind the wheels of three of more million motor cars and lorries, London is far too dangerous, save for perhaps a few select neighborhoods, for owners to allow their cats to roam unsupervised, especially after dark. (See Cat Defender post of September 20, 2018 entitled "Pirate Pleasantly Surprises the Thespians at the Bush Theatre by Turning Up after a Six-Month Absence but He Is Far from Being Out of the Woods Just Yet.") 

In addition to all the overcrowding and congestion, the London Wildlife Trust estimates that there are ten-thousand foxes living in the metropolis and all of them are prolific cat killers. For example, late Monday evening on October 10th, fifteen-year-old Larry chased off a fox from outside his home at 10 Downing Street. (See The Mirror, October 11, 2022, "Larry the Number 10 Cat Chases Fox out of Downing Street after Spotting Intruder Prowling.")

Steven Bouquet, the Brighton Cat Killer, Died in Prison in January

Larry has endured many trials and tribulations and a proverbial blizzard of verbal abuse from Fleet Street since he arrived in Downing Street in 2011 and it would be a crime of epic proportions if he were to be eaten by a ravenous fox. Yet, that is a rather distinct possibility if the politicians and bureaucrats do not start taking substantially better care of him. (See Cat Defender posts of July 21, 2011 and August 1, 2016 entitled, respectively, "Larry Faces Many Challenges and Dangers in His New Role as 10 Downing Street's Resident Feline" and "Unmercifully Maligned and Treated Like Dirt for So Many Years, Larry Nevertheless Manages to Stick Around Long Enough in Order to See the Last of David Cameron and His Uncaring Family.")

Mixed in alongside all the predatory hit-and-run motorists and foxes there are innumerable feline abusers, killers, and poisoners. To top off the entire sorry situation, Scotland Yard, the RSPCA, courts, and veterinary community are either apathetic to the plight of cats and their owners or hate them both outright.

The media have washed their hands of these killings and have not even mentioned them in about a year. SLAIN and SNARL likewise have largely moved on to other issues. Cats and their owners therefore have been abandoned to their own devices.

With that being the case, it seems clear that the only options left open to those owners in London who truly care about the safety of their companions is for them to either keep them inside, fence in their gardens, or to train them to tolerate harnesses and to walk on leashes. That is, admittedly, cruel but at the same time it is far preferable to allowing them to fall prey to the Croydon Cat Killer, foxes, and hit-and run drivers.

Cleo's owner committed a cardinal sin on the evening of September 21st when she allowed her to go outside by herself and that is a mistake that is destined to haunt her conscience for as long as she lives. As for Cleo, the last moments of her life are far too horrible to even contemplate. To say the least, she certainly in no way deserved what was done to her.

It has not been disclosed if the RSPCA even bothered to return her remains to her owner but, if it did, it can only be hoped that she cared enough about her to have provided her with a fitting memorial service, a proper burial, and a tombstone. It is vitally important that her memory live on somewhere besides in cyberspace. Cat lives should matter, at least to those who profess to love them.

Photos: the RSPCA (Cleo), the Daily Mail (map, Rising and Jenkins, Teddy, headline, Squiggles, Bounce, and Taz), Katherine Hughes (Theo), WKGO-TV (Farmer), and The Guardian (Bouquet).