THEY FRAMED MR FOX!
After police spent three years hunting the Croydon cat killer, they said it was a fox whodunnit. But now distraught pet owners and vets have macabre evidence they say proves the real killer is still on the loose . . . and, yes, it IS a human
The late September sun beats down on a patch of common land in the London Borough of Bromley, and a woman in chunky high heels and a tight black skirt squeezes her way through a hole in a fence.
Disappearing into the undergrowth where a local man has warned of a fox den, she returns with a grim discovery.
In her latex-gloved hands she’s carrying a large plastic bag. Slumped inside are the remains of a cat. Its bright, marmalade-striped fur and spotless white paws are clearly visible.
‘Can you see?’ asks the woman, indicating the head of the dead animal. The tips of its ears are missing. The tail is gone and other wildlife have clearly scavenged on the carcass. It’s a stomachchurning sight, but by no means the first I’ve seen today.
An hour earlier, I’d been sitting with Boudicca Rising, one of the founders of the South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (Snarl) group in a cafe nearby. She had been showing me pictures of previous animal corpses she’d recovered — cats, rabbits, foxes, all with similar parts missing.
When the latest call comes in, from a local man reporting the body, we drive to a housing estate along with Boudicca’s partner Tony Jenkins and another member of the Snarl team.
‘Did he suffer?’ asks a concerned elderly lady, coming out of her house. ‘No,’ says Boudicca, reassuringly. ‘We think they are killed quickly. We’ll take him to the vet’s, but there’s no point reporting it to the police any more.’
her last remark is pointed. Until last week, the Metropolitan Police, alongside the RSPCA and Snarl, were working on ‘ Operation Takahe’ to investigate hundreds of suspicious animal deaths and mutilations. For nearly three years, they had worked to unravel what they thought were the acts of a person who, they suspected, lured pets with food before killing them with a blunt instrument and dismembering them.
At one point, as many as 15 Scotland Yard officers were helping to find the killer, who Snarl says could be responsible for around 500 deaths. Although he was dubbed the ‘Croydon Cat Killer’ or ‘M25 Cat Killer’, suspicious deaths and decapitations were reported as far away as Northamptonshire and Manchester.
But last week, the Metropolitian Police announced that there is no serial killer on the loose. No crimes have been committed and Operation Takahe is closed.
‘Following a thorough examination of the available evidence, officers working alongside experts have concluded that hundreds of reported cat mutilations in Croydon and elsewhere were not carried out by a human and are likely to be the result of predation or scavenging by wildlife,’ they said in a statement.
‘There were no witnesses, no identifiable patterns and no forensic leads that pointed to human involvement. Witness statements were taken, but no suspect was identified.’
The police revealed that in three instances where CCTV was obtained, footage showed foxes carrying bodies or body parts of cats into gardens.
Pathology reports back up their theory. Dr henny Martineau, the head of forensic pathology at the Royal Veterinary College, carried out post-mortems on three cats and two rabbits in June, and concluded the mutilations had been caused by scavenging. She found fox DNA on the bodies.
even the original pathologist, who examined bodies in 2016 and concluded that the mutilations had been caused by a bladed instrument, has had a change of heart. In a re-examination of six animals this August, he found puncture wounds he had not spotted on some of the animals, and concluded that some may have been scavenged.
In their statement, the Met cited a piece in New Scientist magazine by Professor Stephen harris, one of the UK’s leading fox experts. In it, he wrote: ‘We have known for decades that foxes chew the head or tail off carcasses, including dead cats.’
Sceptical criminologists have suggested that the public might prefer to believe that there is just one ‘serial killer’ rather than face the unpalatable truth that animal cruelty is widespread.
So there we have it. The members of Snarl have been outfoxed
by cunning furry predators scavenging on the remains of road traffic accident victims. Or have they?
Pet owners are furious at what they believe was, at best, an illadvised move to close the case. Snarl’s Facebook page has been inundated with messages asking how the Met could make such a decision, particularly as both they and the RSPCA stated during the investigation that a human — or humans — may be to blame.
One animal lover in Kent has set up an online petition asking the Met to reverse its decision. It has received more than 27,000 signatures so far.
After years of investigating , Boudicca and T ony say they are surprised. Boudicca says: ‘From
years, in opinion what accidents ‘We the know we’ve killings there to and back cats seen is and that human are this over we foxes killed up. the have involvement scavenge in last expert traffic three the of more times bodies. than before 1,500 We’ve and incidents seen we’ve that discounted as plenty being non-human ‘How does related. it explain why one small body part is missing when we recover the head and body of an animal? Why are heads, tails and even collars returned to the owners — or to the spot the body was placed — days, weeks and months after the killing?
‘We had one case where a rabbit was killed and, six months later, his head was returned to his garden in pri pristine condition. That ’s not the wo work of foxes.’
T This week , the Mail spoke to ow owners who refuse to believe that fox foxes are to blame for their pets’ pet deaths.
‘ ‘I I’m a trained butcher and rec recognise when flesh has been cut or t torn and there is no way that my cat’s cat head and tail were removed by af a fox,’ says Graham Y oung from So South Merstham, Surrey , whose 1919-year-old cat Bounce was killed and his body placed in a neighbour’s dri drive in June.
‘T ‘There were no impact marks, the h 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.
‘The vet thought Bounce could have been poisoned and mutilated, as there was no blood loss. Whoever did this waits until the animal is dead and the blood has congealed. Unless foxes are carrying around knives, there’s no doubt in my mind that a person did this.’
Jayne Galloway, 54, a freelance hair stylist from P otters Bar , Hertfordshire, agrees. Her five-year-old cat Taz was found in a neighbour’s garden after he went missing in October 2017.
‘My neighbour Mark and I found him and we were so shocked,’ says Jayne. ‘We just stood staring at the body. 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 his ear had been cut off cleanly. There was no way he’d been in a fight. I’m annoyed that the police have come out with this rubbish about foxes.’
Sceptics might argue that a grieving owner is not the best person to comment on the forensics of their pet ’s demise. But this week, three veterinary practices in the South-East — all of which say they have examined ‘victims’ — have come out in support of Snarl’s theory about human involvement.
‘We’ve had ten to 15 cats come in to us over the past few years with no heads, no tails and the wound has been incredibly clean,’ says Nicola Bromley, clinical director of Grove Lodge Vets, in Worthing, West Sussex. ‘The injuries are not con - sistent with a road traffic accident, where there would be scuffing , pelvic fractures and crush injuries. Nor are they consistent with foxes attacking or scavenging.
‘When an animal attacks or eats another, the wound is scruffy , there’s a lot of chewing on the bone and contamination. W ith the bodies where the heads and tails are removed, you’d expect a fox to pull out the innards, but these dead animals don ’t seem to have that. These injuries are consistent with a blade being used. I can’t see any logical answer to the deaths other than human involvement.’
In online statements, two other vets which had examined bodies said they disagreed with the latest pathologist’s report.
‘We have seen several of these bodies brought in to us,’ said a spokesman for Streatham Hill Vets in South-West London.
‘They have all consisted of clean, surgical- type amputations or beheadings. They were not done by foxes or wild animals.’
A vet at Whiteley V illage V et Centre in F areham, Hampshire, added: ‘I feel that this is more to do with case-closing statistics than finding the truth.
‘I’m very glad the case is still being privately investigated by Snarl as, until foxes learn to drive and handle scalpels and shears, they are not responsible.’
Trevor Williams, founder of the Fox Project, who has studied foxes for more than 40 years, agrees that foxes cannot be blamed for many of the markings found on the dead animals.
‘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 that can do that.
‘The police now say they feel they have no reason to believe there is human involvement, although they’ve given me reason to understand differently when I’ve been consulted in the past.’
The Met declined to make any further comment on the closure of Operation Takahe.
BUT Northamptonshire Police have confirmed they are still investigating five deaths, while K ent Police have ongoing inquiries into the death of a cat this month.
The RSPCA has told the Mail it will continue to investigate suspicious deaths and mutilations.
‘The experts still believe that a small number of the incidents in Croydon, which initiated this investigation, are suspicious so our investigation remains open,’ says a spokesman. ‘The RSPCA always maintained an open mind when it came to this investigation.’
Back in Bromley , the sun is setting as the stray marmalade Tom, affectionately nicknamed Ginger by the locals, is taken away by Tony and Boudicca to the vets. Yesterday, the vet told Snarl they want to re-examine the body.
Despite the latest development, the team at Snarl — including an ex-Metropolitan Police officer and a security expert — are undeterred and will continue to investigate privately. Recently, they began patrolling a small area which had seen 12 reported killings in the space of 18 months, posting regular updates on Facebook.
Since the patrols began, Snarl claims there have been no reported suspicious animal deaths in that area — yet within 500 metres of the perimeter, bodies have been reported. It may be a bizarre twist in this even more bizarre tale but, if there is a killer , could he be playing a sinister game of cat-andmouse with Snarl itself?
Boudicca shrugs. ‘W e have a feeling he’s watching what we’re doing,’ she says. ‘Why would foxes stop scavenging bodies in the area we’re patrolling — unless they’ve learned how to use Facebook?’