‘Witchcraft’ fears as black cats vanish from twin villages

THEY are often considered a symbol of evil omens, associated with witchcraft and bad luck. So it is little wonder, perhaps, that the sudden disappearance of up to seven black cats from two neighbouring villages in North Yorkshire has been linked to Hallowe’en.

The cats, all black and all highly unlikely to roam far from home, vanished one by one from their homes in Crofton-tees and Dalton-on-tees just a mile or so down the road.

So bizarre is the spate of disappearances that the police are investigating amid fears that they have been snatched in a targeted campaign.

The much-loved pets, most of them microchipped, all disappeared during August and September and there have been no reports of cats of any other colour being lost or stolen.

In Croft, Harriet Boyd’s two black cats, brothers Austin and Arthur, both disappeared within weeks of each other. Mrs Boyd, 39, a Teesside University lecturer said: “We’ve come to the inevitable conclusion that someone is taking the cats and we’re trying to imagine why. All the missing cats are black, none of any other colour we know of are missing, which is very strange and odd. I have been thinking in terms of witchcraft or perhaps the closeness to Hallowe’en. It’s a disturbing thought but it’s still there.” Mrs Boyd said her three children aged 10, eight and five were devastated.

Jackie Schmidt, the owner of Tom, said the disappearances were “a complete mystery”. She added: “It is as if they have just vanished into thin air. There are loads of cats in our village but it is only the black ones which have disappeared.”

Jane Parlour, a farmer living down the road in Dalton, saw one of Mrs Boyd’s posters and contacted her to say two of her black cats had also uncharacteristically disappeared.

Both reappeared several days later but Mrs Parlour, who has several other cats but only two who are black, said they did not appear to have been injured or sleeping rough and she was baffled as to where they had been.

Mrs Parlour said she knew of two other black cats from Dalton which were also missing. “It is very strange, they are all particularly well looked after and from good homes,” she added.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “Police have received reports of a number of black cats going missing from Croft and Dalton. Officers are working to establish the full circumstances.”