The weekend has again seen another case of what appears to be the poisoning of pet cats in Gilberdyke. Five-year-old Libby Reynolds, who stays weekends with her grandparents at 9 Scalby Lane, has had three of her pet cats poisoned during the last 6 months.
The first cat went missing last Boxing Day and she never saw it again and assumed it may have been run over, subsequently a neighbour informed the family that he’d found the cat dead in his garden and had buried it. Two days later on 29th December 2008, Libby’s other cat was found in a great deal distress and extremely ill at the front door by her grandparents when they returned from a night out, they thought it had been hit by a car, however on closer examination it was obvious that was not the case, they took the cat to the vet where it was kept in overnight, tragically for Libby the cat had to be put down the following day. The vet thought it had been killed by eating rat poison or weed killer.
Libby was then given two kittens to make up for her loss, all was well until last Saturday when one of them was found dead in a neighbours garden, it was lying in vomit and excrement and had the symptoms of an agonising death similar to that of her previous cat. On Sunday another cat that used to frequent Libby’s grandparent’s home to play with her cats was found dead in the same garden, it also had the same symptoms as the other two, the owner has not been traced.
The incident has been reported to the Police and the RSPCA and logged by the Police under crime number 792 of 20th June 2009. If anyone has any information please don’t hesitate to contact the Police on 0845 60 60 222.
Libby is not on her own as the Whitehouse family of nearby Willow Green also lost two family cats in mysterious circumstances last November.
Also five year old Tyler Holtby of Hewitts Cottages, Clementhorpe Road, Gilberdyke lost two of his cats in mysterious circumstances in March of this year, and a third cat returned home showing similar symptoms to Libby’s cats. Fortunately the vet was able to save the animal on this occasion.
A cat belonging to Kerry Mortimer also of Hewitts Cottages had her cat disappear last October.
These incidents may all be accidental - but they may also be deliberate. I hope that if the poisoning of these cats has been deliberate the person or people responsible fully understand the appalling suffering the animals go through before they die, and the distress caused especially to small children whose only crime has been to own a pet cat.
2 comments:
Paul - And there was my friends saying, after we visited Eastrington and Elvington at the weekend, that it was quiet living in the country!
I’m sure they wouldn’t believe me when I tell them, that even here, we are blighted by anti social behaviour.
Yesterday my husband, on his way home from work, encountered one case of road rage having followed a driver back from Howden weaving from side to side whilst on his mobile, we also have litter problems since the arrival of the local Deli and often people mistake the wall opposite as a public toilet - now you highlight once again cat poisoning. Something needs to be done urgently about these problems.
Obviously there is some sadist coward living in the neighbourhood with a hatred for cats as there were rumours of cats being poisoned by anti freeze in Hansard Drive a few years ago which rather unsettled us.
Our three rescue cats only ever going out of the house when either or us is around to supervise them and are always locked in at night but that doesn’t stop us worrying every time, at what they will find or where they go, when they are beyond our sight.
Thank you for raising this but I doubt the Police or RSPCA have many powers to prevent this? (I suggest chemical castration!)
So much for it being quiet living in the country!
With the greatest respect to 'Anonymous' but as she should know, cats are by nature given to roaming.
Who is to say they are not straying into someone's' garden shed or even industrial premises where chemicals are being stored or anti-rodent measures sited.
Has she ever thought that it may not be deliberate acts of sadistic cowardice at all, but a quite innocent happening brought about by nothing more sinister than a cat's sense of curiosity?
Also we have heard of the RSPCA/ local vets putting down a cat believed to be a stray when in fact it wasn't...who's to say that incident was the only one of its kind?
Also cats seem to come off second best when crossing busy roads at night...and with the busy M62 and B1230 on your doorstep and the penchant of local 'yoofs' in their cars racing each other to be first down Thornton Dam Lane...need I elaborate?
People on mobile phones are IMHO a danger we could well do without on our roads, but those who appoint themselves judge and jury when witnessing such acts often bring on the 'road rage' by their interference in pointing out to the culprits the error of their ways... If your hubby really wants to do something about the matter, may I suggest that the next time he sees someone using a phone whilst driving he does what I often do...stop the car, switch off the engine and using his own mobile phone rings 0845 60 60 222, relaying to the Police the reg number, time and road where the phone user was seen.
Leave policing the roads to the Police and avoid being swept up in road rage incidents.
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