Charity appeals for information over ‘suspicious’ deaths

BY SALLY HIND s.hind@dailyrecord.co.uk

TERRIFIED cat owners fear their pets are being deliberately poisoned after five died and two went missing in a Scots town.

One devastated owner told the Record she has lost three cats in suspicious circumstances within the last three months in Biggar, Lanarkshire.

Animal welfare chiefs confirmed yesterday they had launched a probe into the deaths.

The mum, who does not want to be named, found her pet Milo’s body had been laid on her driveway some time after he had died and no one has ever come forward to explain how the three-year-old ginger cat was found on June 7.

Milo’s death came after the family’s black cat Charlie was found dead last month – just weeks after grey-and-white Ash was hit by a car.

She said: “Somebody had lifted Milo when he was already stiff and laid him on the driveway within a 20-minute period of me leaving the house and arriving back. They must have known it was our cat.”

Neighbour Kim McLean Guthrie, 29, was devastated to discover her five-year-old tabby cat Fudge had been found dead on the road and alerted the Scottish SPCA after hearing of the deaths of her neighbours’ cats.

The charity said a fifth cat was discovered yesterday morning and appealed for information on the “suspicious circumstances” in the Elphinstone Crescent area.

Inspector Dawn Robertson said: “It is very unusual to have five cats pass away and two be missing over such a short space of time.”

Contact the charity’s confidential animal helpline on 03000 999 999.