NORTHAMPTONSHIRE POLICE HAVE arrested a man in connection with a string of cat killings in the area, and investigations are underway to see if the cases are linked to the “Croydon cat killer”.
The 31-year-old man is suspected of being involved in the deaths of five cats, as well as a number of arson attacks, who were found mutilated in Northampton between August and November.
This man, however, has since been released pending further inquiries.
The police force there is working with the Met Police in London to see if there’s a link with the notorious “Croydon cat killer”, but South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (Snarl) says it does not believe the person arrested is behind the killings.
Snarl believes that the “Croydon cat killer”, as they have become known, may have not confined their activities to that section of south London and slaughtered up to 400 cats across the country.
It said that this individual “remains active and we continue to attend incidents”, with the most recent taking place on Friday.
In a Facebook post, it urged no one to engage in any vigilante action or to name any potential suspect until they have been charged by police.
In an interview with AFP before Christmas, Snarl’s Tony Jenkins outlined how he and co-founder Boudicca Rising have, since 2015, identified patterns of behaviour in the killings, discovering that some cat bodies are deliberately posed near schools and in parks, or even under their owners’ windows.
Post-mortems following the first spate of attacks found that the cats died from blunt force trauma and the mutilations occurred after death.
“Police believe an individual or a group of individuals… are responsible for both the deaths and mutilations,” Scotland Yard told AFP.
Over the Christmas period, there were reports of cats being attacked in south and north London, Buckinghamshire and Kent.
Charities such as Snarl are working with law enforcement agencies in the UK to try to track down the person or persons responsible.
Two groups, Peta UK and Outpaced, are also offering £5,000 each for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the cat killer.
With reporting from AFP
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