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?

I didnt realise how clueless city dwellers could be about foxes.

Miladymilord is that you again Hyacinth, playing at Lady of the Manor? How do you even know where posters on this thread live?

I could say how rude country folk are, but I realise all country dwellers are not of one hive mind, so I cannot generalise

Call me a clueless city dweller (I'm not) but I don't think a fox is capable of hanging a headless cat on someone's front door, or maybe I'm just naive and don't realise the ways of the country

Glintandglide Not trying to shut anyone down. I just think it is very easy to throw out the attention seeking making it up argument with very little evidence to back it up.

What on Earth sort of evidence would you be expecting? I’m honestly flummoxed

Like the collar appearing 6 months later- according to the owner at least.
That could have a very simple explanation. If I found a collar, then I'd try and return it to the owner if the address was on it (which it may well have been) or if I found it on the ground then I might well pop it on a nearby wall or similar in the hope that the owner saw it.

I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if this has been said before, but if it were foxes, why are the killings only confined to certain areas. Surely if foxes were responsible for the killings then every area across the whole of the UK would be experiencing the same problem. Yet currently, it's confined to only certain areas. I am absolutely NOT convinced that the foxes are at fault for the vast majority of the killings. Foxes may have been spotted on CCTV with the bodies (or body parts) of dead cats which I imagine is quite normal if they are looking for something to eat and come across a dead or injured animal. What does not make sense is the people who reported their animals dead and potentially killed by the cat killer (this includes the vets and others who later examined the dead animals), from what I've seen, nowhere did they report peri-mortem injuries consistent with animal bites/attacks causing the cat/animals death. Further, do you think if a fox successful killed a cat, it would leave the body behind for some other animal to benefit from. For the most part, I highly doubt it. I've had 4 cats over the last 30 years and I live in a street overrun with pet cats AND foxes. I've seen cats die from road traffic accidents, accidental injuries, an accidental drowning, dog attacks and maliciously inflicted intentional injuries by people. But I have yet to see a cat death by foxes. Some nights my cats are out and there are regularly between 4-6 adult foxes within meters of my cats/neighbours cats, (plus sometimes young cubs running around as wekk). So far, i've never seen them bother my cats or anyone else's. I'm not saying that it's never happened or it never will, but I've yet to see it or hear from someone who has.

You know what I think? The Police are putting this out there for a reason.

The way the cats bodies are displayed is very exhibitionist. The killer wants people to know there is a cat killer about.

This news will deflate him/her and he may become more daring to dissprove the police's new "theory".

Agree Finest. We have always had cats/kittens and always have foxes in the garden, never have the foxes even gone close to the cats let alone intricately slice their paws and tails off

I hope to God you're right Coffee and it's not just police incompetence.

I actually suspect the Police are fed up of investing money and resources into this investigation and now want to put those money/resources elsewhere. Plus they are not getting anywhere. So using the line the cat killer doesn't actually exist as an excuse to pull out.

I think they’re just saying this to antagonise the killer so they can catch him

But I did go through a phase of watching far too much Criminals Minds

Unless I misunderstood, the police haven't suggested that foxes killed the cats. They are saying the cats were run over and foxes then attacked the bodies. They also said they found similar incidents far from London and incidents also dating back years.

However, it does feel like there is more to this story. And it also crossed my mind that announcing this is a ploy to get a suspect to boast.

But the 'more to the story' may simply be that they overlooked the obvious explanation from the start.

Am quite surprised the Police have completely ruled out human involvement? By all means release a statement to say the majority of cases can be proven to be down to foxes and police efforts are being scaled down but at least acknowledge the "few" cases that are clearly not down to foxes???.

Unless this is a bluff to let the sick fucker think they've got away with it and finally catch "him" (or is this theory a bit too 'Hollywood' ?? )

This is nuts this thread. Anecdotes do not equal evidence, correlation does not equal causation, stuff you heard, even from a close friend, isn’t necessarily the whole truth.

I heard on the radio that there had been reports from other cities. I heard on the radio that the police had confirmed they’re standing down. I heard on the radio that the vet had re-examined a (or maybe some) bodies and concluded that they had been wrong in their first assessment.

Why does it make more sense that the BBC made up that the police are standing down, that actually it’s totally localised to Croydon, that the vet is lying?

I think it’s more likely someone in charge in that force has just had a bollocking over their budgets and how much is being wasted on a few dead cats that may or may not have been killed by humans and they’ve put a stop to it.

@NotMy - by your own admission you don’t actually know about fox behaviour so why is it so difficult to accept what a person who does what is going on?

This is almost exactly like the Muslims won’t allow Christmas trees, TERfs are razorblading sticker stories - totally whipping people into a froth.

Btw not doubting there’s not plenty of sickos out there but unless there’s someone who has both the restraint to stick to animals but is also wild enough to do two or so a week, I reckon the animal answer is more likely.

how much is being wasted on a few dead cats that may or may not have been killed by humans and they’ve put a stop to it.

Except it's not a few cats, it's hundreds and hundreds of cats, rabbits and wildlife and we all know that eventually the sicko will turn to humans, probably women/girls. So you'd better hope it is a bloody fox.

Foxes? Not buying it. We have 2 foxes that raid bins where I live & every house bar 1 has cats. The only mangled cat we've had in years was the tabby that fell foul of a rare car(one way system so quiet car wise). Thats in North London. In Warwickshire village backing on to open fields next door had baby rabbits killed by 'regular' fox but their hutch was falling apart so hey ho. Again, everyone had un molested cats for the 20years we lived there. Our furry girl spent all night in the fields as did the other cats no problem.

There have been a few cat killers recently in the US, it does happen. One was a guy with mental health issues leaving mutilated cats on graves at a Cemetery once a week for over a year. Newly installed CC TV caught him. The other was the 'disturbed' 19year old son of a Dentist in a very wealthy area who killed & mutilated 26cats in 9months.

Apparently the RSPCA said 2 years ago they believed that the blunt force trauma would likely have been caused by being hit by a car, but it was SNARL that claimed that the cats were killed by being thrown against a wall.

I thought that SNARL were a big organisation of experts but they are 2 people! Who are not experts, unlike the guy who has studied fox behaviour for 50 years, and a head vet at the RVC, who both believe that it is cars/foxes.

This is the danger of social media.

I've just come across this on Facebook..

Except it's not a few cats, it's hundreds and hundreds of cats, rabbits and wildlife

No, it’s not.

Only about 30 post mortems have been done and not one of them has found proof that the animal was ‘murdered’ by a human.

Imo what’s happened is that there’s probably one weirdo teenager in the area who may have killed a couple of cats, that were reported to the police.

The media have got hold of the psycho cat killer storyline and then a whole host of people who’ve cats have been killed because of all the ‘usual’ reasons have jumped on the bandwagon, convinced they’ve been victims of the cat murderer.

Along the way someone found a cats collar and returned it to the address on the tag.
And somewhere else a neighbour found Mrs Thomas’s cat dead on the road and put it in a bag in her garden, thinking she’d rather know. And a school found a cat dead in their playground.

And all these ‘normal’ things have been attributed to the ‘cat killer’ in the papers and hysteria has grown.

It is a load of bollocks just one more thing for the police to sweep under the carpet and blame it on an animal. They did not want to spend anymore time or energy on just an animal so chose the easy way out.

When DB and I were younger we found a cat collar with an address on it. As there was no-one in we popped it through the letterbox. With hindsight we should have left a note. We found it deep in bushes, it could easily have been there 6 months.
(not in the relevant area so wasn't us but could easily happen).

On Facebook awhile ago, SNARL shared a post about 2 missing cats Polly and Basil, Basil missing, Polly found dead on a footpath, “mutilated” “murdered”. Lots of emotive language and comments.

This same case is quoted in a Guardian article a pp shared earlier in the thread. In this article the owner said himself he originally thought that Polly was killed by a car (the footpath is close to a busy road) and her body was picked at by animals.

No evidence that Basil is dead at all, could have been taken in by another family.

Talk about hysteria.

YANBU I thought the same OP