To think that the idea that the Croydon Cat killer is actually a Fox is a load of b*ll**cks

[mumof2andsurviving]

^^just that really. I'm not buying this fox theory. Mutilated cats left on owners doorsteps...don't think even the most intelligent foxes could manage that.

AIBU to feel that either a) the police no longer have resources to spend on this or b) it is a tactic used to try and lull the perpetrator into a false sense of security?

15 officers is a bit different to no full time officers?! Both of those can't be true.

But yeah, I'd be amazed if it's foxes. They just want to close the case and move on.

But yeah, I'd be amazed if it's foxes

Why??

Diana - my friend found her neighbours cat like this on her lawn on returning from the school run. Like I say maybe some / most are foxes. Some are human. The same as humans mutalate horses etc. The evidence is that she found found it. Police attended and took photos.

Seriously you can disregard it all you want it is a fact that he has trademarks that he leaves with each victim. Calling the evidence just sweet wrappers is bizzare. I have found two I know a lot about the whole situation it is fuck all to do with foxes.

*But yeah, I'd be amazed if it's foxes

Why??*
Read the statement from SNARL ^^

Milady - well foxes have been around urban areas forever, so why did this only start when it did?

And why only in localised parts of the U.K?

There are cats and foxes everywhere

Cats can certainly line rodent internal organs up in careful patterns on my kitchen floor with no trace of the external body so I assume foxes can do the same. Either that or I’ve got a very small and neat-fingered human psychopath coming in through my kitchen window at night and leaving without a trace.

This was quite interesting www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/the-crazy-story-of-how-british-police-spent-three-years?utm_term=.pzDOpbEA7E#.pzDOpbEA7E

Maybe they are worried about copycat killers. Maybe trying to make there no publicity?

It's not foxes though. Loads of foxes and cats around me and no dead cats.

We have a family of foxes living in our garden and cats. All is fine... although our foxes like trampolining (like the John Lewis ad) so maybe they are too busy having fun

Sounds like yet another fail from the awful Cressida Dick.

I'm not buying this bullshit story either.

Clearly they want to stop spending any time on it so they're just closing the case.

I don't think it is a waste of time actually, whoever is actually doing it is mentally very dangerous. Plus people's pets are emotionally very important to them. I'd rather be burgled than have this happen to one of my cats.

The scavenging fox removing the tail and head from road kill just doesn't make sense either... Why would an animal take the body parts with the least meat (head and tail) and leave the part with the most meat (the actual body)? A hungry fox would either just take the whole body or they would eat the body.

They must just think people are stupid and will buy anything if it's printed in a credible source, like the BBC.

@makeorbreak1 You seem quite sure it's a 'he'. Do you have any suspicions?

I don't see why they needed so many officers on it tbh.

But yes doesn't seem likely to be a fox

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/08/croydon-cat-killer-hunt-three-years-man-myth

I did wonder whether the writing was on the wall when I read this last month.

I just read the article about this on the BBC website, and was completely shocked and surprised.

I do not believe the new apparent ‘truth,’ and think it must be a money saving exercise. Very sad and shameful if so.

I do think there is a huge amount of drama and armchair detective work in this case, not least SNARL themselves (the “escalating to serial killer” being one example)

It doesn’t seem like all these examples can be logically put to foxes but then, who knows how true they all are? Like the collar appearing 6 months later- according to the owner at least. Who knows whether that actually happened or whether they wanted to extend their 5 mins of fame?

Foxes do return to the scene of the kill- sadly a friend is having her cat returned to her bit by bit at the moment by a fox. The Fox didn’t kill it (it dug it up after it was buried) but it has mutilated the body and has been leaving parts in her back doorstep for a couple of days now. So to some extent perfectly believable

Small rescues like Snarl certainly don't have the manpower or resources to waste time for "5 minutes of fame". They really don't. They're just responding to a real issue and they have concrete examples which, to me, show that it is very probably a human.
Of course, it's impossible to prove until the person is arrested and there is enough proof to convict but, really, don't bad-mouth a local rescue with no experience of the work they do. I have absolutely no connection with them but have followed their posts and updates, as I'm fairly local to the Croydon area (Surrey).

I'm not arguing that there isn't human involvement in at least some of the cases but I wouldn't be at all surprised if a fox has developed a taste for cats.

It is perfectly possible that having successfully caught a cat once, a local fox has gone on to develop more efficient methods of hunting a relatively bountiful prey. It's also possible that said fox has raised cubs and is teaching the same efficient hunting methods. So you have killings over a specific range, escalating over time and beginning to spread from the initial very local area as subsequent litters are born and move away to establish their own territory.

Agreed I listened to a phone on about this and some of the parts were surgically removed

They can’t find the killer and don’t want to panic people

People who do this to animals worry the police more than your average nutter

The cats all showed blunt force trauma in line with being hit by a car (so near their homes) and a percentage probably got home before they dropped dead.

The foxes were even caught on CCTV dismembering the dead cats ffs in some of the cases.

You're all batshit.

I'm not buying this.. I've been following this case for quite some time now & there is no way some of the mutilations etc can have been foxes, especially leaving the cats on the owners doorsteps, or are foxes that intelligent I'm sure there was one case where the cat had been left on display in a children's play area. It's horrific what this person has done & I wouldn't be surprised if they move onto humans next.

The police weren't releasing certain details about the bodies found because they were worried about copycat killers.

I'm sure as well when they had released a description of the man they thought it was they were actually urging people to call 999 and quote Operation Takahe if they saw a man matching his description with a head torch, looking like he was trying to lure cats (it sounds ridiculous I know). But surely that proves that they were very concerned about what he may do next? Yet now they're saying it's foxes...

I listened to a phone-in on LBC in the wee small hours today. Two very down-to-earth ladies called in with similar experiences from area surrounding Croydon. Spine chilling is how I would describe it. Unless a fox has the power to decapitate a cat and display it grotesquely 'a la' entrails on a car bonnet. Beats the shit out of me.

The evidential history reads more like a crazed serial killer in a very dark and sinister Scandi crime thriller that Saga Noren et al working for a few years fails to solve unsuccessfully.

I agree op, load of old bollocks it was a fox.