The Met have published data on which London borough has had the most reports of stolen pet since 2012, however it would seem one borough has a long history of pet-based crime
The Met Police has revealed the number of reported stolen pets from every borough in London since January 2012.
The borough with the most abducted animals was Barking & Dagenham at a grand total of 1,293 stolen pets with second place falling to Hillingdon in West London.
The South London borough of Croydon only holds the third spot for the borough with the most pet abductions in London. However, this has not been the first time the borough has found itself at the forefront of pet related crime.
Throughout the mid 2010s reports of cats being killed and mutilated ran rampant across Croydon and South London. The incidents were not solely localised to London and panned out to areas such as Guildford and others across England.
Reports started in November 2015 of a number of cats found in the Croydon area mutilated – a number with their heads and tails removed – sparking media headlines.
One owner, Charlotte said her cat, Scooter was allegedly killed by the prolific cat killer.
Over 400 mutilated cats across England and the home counties were reported from this time as animal welfare experts and police collaborated to look for patterns as the body count climbed through the 100s.
The Met opened an investigation in 2015 and began looking for a man located in the Croydon area who was believed to be behind this string of killings.
Throughout this period there were widespread fears that these feline mutilations were part of satanic ritual by the culprit and the killer could potentially turn to attacking people.
Now almost 10 years on from the initial reports, many believe the Croydon Cat Killer may have never existed to begin with. In 2018 the Met police closed their investigation into the numerous mutilations and concluded they were most likely due to foxes.
The main issues with the evidence before the blame could be entirely pinned on foxes were a number of mutilations in 2016. Of these, six of these were deemed suspicious after investigation.
“No evidence of human involvement was found in any of the reported cases. 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 force said.
On top of all of this the Met noted: “In three instances where CCTV was obtained, footage showed foxes carrying bodies or body parts of cats.”
Ultimately in 2018 in a meeting with South Norwood Animal Rescue League (SNARL) and the RSPCA the Met declared: “All of the cases of cat mutilations will be recorded as no crime.”
A subsequent study by the Royal Veterinary College published in 2021 would go on to affirm the Met’s position.
Dr Henny Martineau, head of the Veterinary Forensic Pathology at the Royal Veterinary College said: “The narrative of this so-called ‘cat killer’ was a good example of human tendency to pick out what we have made a major discovery or noted a particular pattern.”
Stuart Orton, East Hertfordshire chief inspector, said on the study: “I hope that this new analysis provides some comfort to the owners who previously believed that their beloved pets had been targeted maliciously. It also provides law enforcement colleagues to review any future investigations from a scientifically supported and evidence-based approach.”
Despite this evidence many people still believe that the Croydon Cat Killer is still out there and Croydon’s poor foxes have taken the fall instead of the man behind these multiple cat crimes.
Tony Jenkins and partner, Boudicca Rising, who co-run SNARL believe the culprit is still out there and have labelled the potential occupations for the killer – being a contractor, builders and even journalist.
With the investigation closed by the MET and all of the evidence on the table, do you believe that the Croydon Cat Killer was a man or just an urban myth?
There have been hundreds recorded cats killed and if a sole culprit is behind these mutilations the cat killer's body count could be as high as 500.
