Mewdunnit … the Croydon Cat Killer is actually a fox

Pet owners furious after police blame 400 deaths on animal attacks

IT was a case that left pet owners terrified of letting their cats leave the house.

But after three years on the tail of the ‘Croydon cat killer’, police yesterday unmasked the culprits … as marauding foxes.

Investigators said there is no human killer behind the slaughter and mutilation of more than 400 pets across the UK.

Instead urban foxes are responsible for either preying on animals or tearing them apart after they were hit by vehicles.

The decision has provoked fury from victims, who insisted foxes could not be responsible for the bizarre circumstances and ‘signature positions’ of limbs and heads left on doorsteps and walls.

Scotland Yard spent almost three years hunting a vicious killer, who earned his nickname from the south London location where the first flurry of deaths had occurred.

Supported by animal activists, the inquiry quickly spiralled with reports flooding in from almost every corner of the country.

A map of incidents even led to suggestions the culprit could be someone who travels frequently, such as a national news reporter.

But a wide-ranging review has now found that cuts to animals claimed to have been made with a knife could have been made by foxes, and footage has also been discovered showing the scavengers dumping bodies and limbs.

Samantha Glass, 44, whose cat Harley was found dead outside her home in Bromley, Kent, blasted the decision as ‘unbelievable’. She said: ‘Words fail me – this is a massive fail on all accounts. There is countless evidence from the Met saying cats have been mutilated by a clean slice. There have been decapitated heads lying across London.’

The inquiry, which began in November 2015, saw a group of detectives assembled under Operation Takahe as anger grew over a string of cat deaths in the New Addington area of Croydon.

Several months later, a postmortem examination on 25 animals found that in six cases there was evidence that a human with a ‘sharp implement’ may have been responsible. But the Met Police said a review by a new team found no evidence of human involvement, witnesses, CCTV sightings or forensic leads.

Dr Henny Martineau, who carried out the original post-mortem examinations, has since found puncture marks indicating fox activity. Police also revealed three cases of foxes caught on CCTV, including one carrying a cat’s head into a school playground.

Local charity South Norwood Animal Rescue League, which assisted police in the investigation, said the announcement by the Met ‘came as a surprise’.

Co-founder Boudicca Rising said: ‘We consider that the evidence we have gathered over the last three years does indicate human involvement and there is expert opinion to back this up.’

‘A massive fail on all accounts’