Cat killer on the loose in Lelystad, locals fear

Photo: Brandon Hartley
Photo: Brandon Hartley

Lelystad police have scaled up the hunt for a presumed cat killer whose deadly tally has reached 22 at the last count, the AD reports.

Dead cats started to appear in the Gelderse Diep last year, when four were fished out of the Lelystad canal. One of the animals had broken ribs and the presence of pieces of glass mixed in with cat food pointed to a local with a grudge against cats.

Subsequent inquiries by police did not lead to the culprit and since then 18 more cats have been found in the canal.  The latest victim was five year-old Pip, who was retrieved from the water at the weekend. Pip and some of the other dead cats will now be the subjects of a forensic examination.

Irma Moes, of local animal protection organisation Stichting Dierennoodhulp, said that number of dead cats has accelerated since February.

‘Normally we pick up a dead cat every six weeks or so but now it’s a few every week. And almost always in the same spot, between the bridges at the Horst and the Ooststranddreef. That really makes your alarm bells go off,’ she told the paper.

Lelystad police officer Jurion Veenstra said that while the first dead cats may have been the victims of a cat killer, the others may have come a cropper because they fell into the canal and were unable to get out again because of new and higher canal sides.

The council has since installed ladders and ropes so any cat that falls in (or is thrown in) can climb out.

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