UK - Reward for identity of the Croydon Cat Ripper. Jan 2016.

[MelmothTheLost]

I was looking back at some of the earliest press reports still available about the case and the early stages of its investigation.

It seems the Met came out much too early with the view that human agency was involved, probably before they had carried out much of an investigation at all. It makes me wonder whether the officers assigned to the investigation were steamrollered by SNARL and PETA, both of which clearly have a vested interest in a particular line of enquiry and a particular outcome, into the approach they took, and perhaps whether those officers were naive about the groups pushing the claims and their agendas.

Unfortunately the police in the UK have a history of being taken in by pressure groups or individuals over certain types of "crimes" and being railroaded in particular directions.

In the 1980s and 1990s it was Christian social workers and the Satanic Ritual Abuse panic.

In the 1990s it was Christians and the supposed widespread ritual abuse of animals, usually farm livestock.

In the 2010s (so far) it's been (a) Operation Midland and the "Nick" claims of CSA in high places and (b) animal rights groups and supposed cat killings.

We seem to have developed a police culture where the police dare not be seen to be sceptical about claims and accusations, no matter how fantastical, so they increasingly go into an investigation prejudging its outcome. They seem to automatically assume a crime has been committed rather than asking whether a crime has been committted.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Met police 'spent £500,000' on 15-officer three-year Croydon Cat Killer probe only to say it was foxes all along

Police spent £500,000 on an investigation into the so-called Croydon Cat Killer only to discover the animals had been mutilated by foxes, it has been claimed.

Scotland Yard said yesterday that the hundreds of reported cat mutilations in south London were not the work of a human killer.

Costs are said to have included £10,000 for post-mortem examinations on the dead cats and £5,000 for a psychological profile of the alleged killer.

The three-year inquiry took up 1,000 hours of officers' time and cost half a million pounds, The Sun reported.

Met police 'spent £500,000' on three-year Croydon Cat Killer probe | Daily Mail Online

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Pet lovers vow to find the Croydon Cat Killer themselves as petition is launched begging police to reopen the case after '£500,000 probe' said foxes were to blame

Animal lovers have vowed to find the supposed Croydon Cat Killer themselves after a three-year police investigation found the animals had been mutilated by foxes.

Scotland Yard said yesterday that the hundreds of alleged cat mutilations in south London were not the work of a human killer, after reportedly spending £500,000 on the probe.

Today a petition was launched calling on police to re-open the case while South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL), a south London charity, said they would continue the investigation themselves.

Met police 'spent £500,000' on three-year Croydon Cat Killer probe | Daily Mail Online

Dunno, it seems to me that at least some of these people WANT their pets to have been deliberately killed by a maniac rather than by a car. Maybe their pet being killed by a faceless Other, a Monster, rather than a car and/or a fox, absolves them to some degree of negligence in allowing their pets to roam outside. Better the pet dies by the Unforeseeable than by something they should reasonably have foreseen and protected it from.

 

[Curious.1]

In retrospect, it seems so odd that the police let SNARL be so involved. Wasn't SNARL wanting to be the point of contact for all cats that were found dead, first in the M25 area then further afield? They were able to seem like "experts" for 3 years and people donated thousands of pounds because of their seeming authority on the matter. How many thousands, we'll probably never know as they aren't a charity and mainly get money thru their website.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

In retrospect, it seems so odd that the police let SNARL be so involved. Wasn't SNARL wanting to be the point of contact for all cats that were found dead, first in the M25 area then further afield? They were able to seem like "experts" for 3 years and people donated thousands of pounds because of their seeming authority on the matter. How many thousands, we'll probably never know as they aren't a charity and mainly get money thru their website.

I'd like to know how many of the more outlandish claims about these dead animals come entirely from SNARL. Claims like microchips being dug out. Decapitated rabbits put back into hutches that were subsequently reclosed. And so on.

I've posted thoughts about SNARL before but there are a number of other issues I have with them. One is that the L is for Liberty, which indicates to me that these people are animal liberationists, ie fanatics. The best-known group is the Animal Liberation Front, or ALF, which terrorised employees of a medical research laboratory, dug up and held to ransom the corpse of an elderly family member of a senior employee of a laboratory; and kidnapped, tortured and branded a TV investigator.

Animal Liberation Front - Wikipedia

SNARL's website provides links to hunt saboteur groups, ie gangs of masked violent thugs that roam the countryside attacking people going about their lawful business. Many of these groups are effectively rural terrorists. So that's the company SNARL likes to keep or be associated with.

I would guess their original or general funding largely comes from other animal rights supporters. The advent of the "Cat Killer" was probably a godsend to them since it meant they could also solicit donations from dotty old catladies.

For me, SNARL is NOT a credible source. They are too biased, have too many very questionable connections, and an all too questionable agenda.

 

[badgersmythe]

Pet owners say they have proof Croydon cat killer is a human

Pet owners say they have proof Croydon cat killer is a human | Daily Mail Online

 

[jslk]

There are plenty of local people who say there is no way that their pets were dismembered by other animals.

I'm still quite torn on this one.

 

[Curious.1]

People are pointing to continuing cases and thinking there is a serial killer....instead of realising that foxes will continue to mutilate cat bodies killed by cars as they have been doing all along. I'm sure there are a number of cats killed by weirdos, disgruntled neighbours and so on but the sheer numbers and UK-wide geographical spread point to something else. Aren't many places with zero foxes.

 

[Loobyloo2]

The alleged Brighton cat killer was caught pending a fair trial and sentencing. M25 killer is still at large though. They leave a trade mark which SNARL who deal with this case have not yet released to the general public.

 

[Loobyloo2]

This is very valid theory and it has been brought up quite a few times on different boards.

As my own cat is missing now few month in London area, I am following quite a few fb pages and Cat killer petitions/awareness and rewards are posted there quite often. People who are dealing with the case has not revealed all the details, but yes, it apparently includes decapitation of the cats plus some other (unknown to public) specific mutilation, that is why theory that it is the same person or group of same people.

I don't have any links at the moment, but if I see anything relevant posted there again I will re-post here.

How would a fox leave a trade signature on the animals it killed and it's own kind too?

 

[Loobyloo2]

I'd like to know how many of the more outlandish claims about these dead animals come entirely from SNARL. Claims like microchips being dug out. Decapitated rabbits put back into hutches that were subsequently reclosed. And so on.

I've posted thoughts about SNARL before but there are a number of other issues I have with them. One is that the L is for Liberty, which indicates to me that these people are animal liberationists, ie fanatics. The best-known group is the Animal Liberation Front, or ALF, which terrorised employees of a medical research laboratory, dug up and held to ransom the corpse of an elderly family member of a senior employee of a laboratory; and kidnapped, tortured and branded a TV investigator.

Animal Liberation Front - Wikipedia

SNARL's website provides links to hunt saboteur groups, ie gangs of masked violent thugs that roam the countryside attacking people going about their lawful business. Many of these groups are effectively rural terrorists. So that's the company SNARL likes to keep or be associated with.

I would guess their original or general funding largely comes from other animal rights supporters. The advent of the "Cat Killer" was probably a godsend to them since it meant they could also solicit donations from dotty old catladies.

For me, SNARL is NOT a credible source. They are too biased, have too many very questionable connections, and an all too questionable agenda.

 

[Loobyloo2]

SNARL still believe that there is a cat killer still at large and that the person is a loner. They do not think that any convicted cat killers or those on trial for killing cats have any connection with the Croydon Cat killer. The theory of the person being part of a gang seems to have been ruled out a while ago too. When the Croydon killers victims have been found dead often with body parts missing there is a signature mark left which is not made by another animal. In the early days of the case Boudicca Rising who was part of SNARL often talked about the signature mark and said that this would rule out foxes. At this present time they have still never revealed what this signature mark is whether something physically done to actual the bodies or a symbol or letter carved into the animal.

 

[Loobyloo2]

I was looking back at some of the earliest press reports still available about the case and the early stages of its investigation.

It seems the Met came out much too early with the view that human agency was involved, probably before they had carried out much of an investigation at all. It makes me wonder whether the officers assigned to the investigation were steamrollered by SNARL and PETA, both of which clearly have a vested interest in a particular line of enquiry and a particular outcome, into the approach they took, and perhaps whether those officers were naive about the groups pushing the claims and their agendas.

Unfortunately the police in the UK have a history of being taken in by pressure groups or individuals over certain types of "crimes" and being railroaded in particular directions.

In the 1980s and 1990s it was Christian social workers and the Satanic Ritual Abuse panic.

In the 1990s it was Christians and the supposed widespread ritual abuse of animals, usually farm livestock.

In the 2010s (so far) it's been (a) Operation Midland and the "Nick" claims of CSA in high places and (b) animal rights groups and supposed cat killings.

We seem to have developed a police culture where the police dare not be seen to be sceptical about claims and accusations, no matter how fantastical, so they increasingly go into an investigation prejudging its outcome. They seem to automatically assume a crime has been committed rather than asking whether a crime has been committted.

 

[Loobyloo2]

There are still some wild claims even to the extent of some conspiracy theorists blaming
the illuminati and saying it goes up to the highest ranks which is why the police have blamed foxes.

 

[Loobyloo2]

Back to reality and someone who would be able to kill all these cats would need a job where they travel all over the M25. Looking at an old crime case there was an serial killer called Robert Black who in the 1970's found a permanent job as a van driver for Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd and delivered billboard advertisements to locations across the UK, Ireland and continental Europe. He used his job to carry out his killings.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

The Brighton cat killer is on trial for stabbing 9 cats to death and injuring 7 others in 2018/19.

Security guard stabbed nine pet cats to death in Brighton, court hears | Daily Mail Online

 

[JuicyLucy]

Pet owners think 'Croydon Cat Killer' is back after feline slain and mutilated

I love that this thread has been resuscitated, although as a cat lover obviously I don't think it's good that there's more to say.

I don't believe in the Croydon Cat Killer myself. I think it's tantamount to an urban myth even in the Croydon/South London area, even more so if there's any suggestion that one person was responsible for thousands of cat mutilations UK-wide, and I agree with the poster who was saying back in 2018 that SNARL's motives in keeping the myth alive - which they are still doing as I write in 2021 - are highly suspect.

The above (May 2021) link is interesting in that it includes almost all of the assumptions that people make about what can and can't be true about dead animals without really questioning them at all. I have personally had a pet cat killed by a car that showed no signs of external trauma at all - no blood, no broken limbs. All the damage was internal, which seemed incredible but according to my vet is common.

I've also seen plenty of decapitated roadkill, including, quite recently, a fox that was hit by a car and decapitated in the process, and was thrown up by the impact to land, headless, neatly on my front path. God knows where the head ended up. If that had been a beloved pet I would have found it hard not to take personally. As it was, I know all it's evidence of is that I live on a road used by both cars and foxes, sometimes at the same time as each other.

The 'heat maps' of incidents that someone produced earlier in the thread were interesting to me, showing as they did a clear hotspot in the South Norwood area that was maintained consistently as the number of data points increased. I know that area reasonably well, so it piqued my curiosity, but it's hard to think the hotspot is anything more than an artefact of an incident recording effort that centred on local organisation SNARL. I would be very interested to know the address of SNARL but it doesn't seem to be any more publicly available than their accounts. A quick google reveals that Boudicca Rising, its key figure, left the organisation in 2019, a year after the police investigation was closed, citing 'professional differences'.

All still fascinating, though - on many levels.

 

[SaintGertrude]

I cannot believe that this is still continuing. There have been a few recent mutilations in Lancing, West Sussex. A few others recently mentioned on the South London Animal Investigation Network FB page that I was unaware about.

 

[badgersmythe]

Fears 'Croydon Cat Killer' is on the prowl again


'Croydon Cat Killer' fears after brutal Sanderstead incident | Daily Mail Online

 

[cnmccarthy]

Fears 'Croydon Cat Killer' is on the prowl again


'Croydon Cat Killer' fears after brutal Sanderstead incident | Daily Mail Online

I’m confused, I thought the killer was caught and sentenced?