$1K Reward Offered in Suspected Serial Cat Killings

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The Ferndale Cat Shelter is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction a suspected serial cat killer responsible for beating about a half dozen felines to death.

Police in Hazel Park, which borders Ferndale, said that from Sept.25-Oct. 6, five reports were taken about cats found dead in the 300 and 400 blocks of East George Avenue.

Necropsies — the equivalent to autopsies in humans — confirmed the cats were beaten to death, Hazel Park Police Chief Martin Barner said. The cats didn’t have external injuries, which Barner said indicates they weren’t killed by another animal or run over by a vehicle.

Four of the cats were cared for by a woman who takes part in a trap, neuter and release program, and a fifth was apparently a pet of a woman who lives down the street.

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The woman caring for the feral foster cats agreed to the necropsies. Originally, police theorized the cats had been poisoned, but the post-mortem examinations showed multiple fractures.

“It’s disturbing when you think of someone who has the mental capacity and forethought to injure a helpless animal like that,” Barner told The Macomb Daily.

Deanne Iovan, executive director of the volunteer Ferndale Cat Shelter, told the Detroit Free Press the attacks on the cats are “pretty horrific.” She thinks someone knows something about who is behind the killings, so her group is putting up the $1,000 reward.

The attacks on the cats are disturbing to Iovan, who pointed out that cruelty to animals is a sign of mental illness

Iovan’s group works to reduce the number of feral and abandoned cats in Hazel Park and Ferndale with a TNR — trap, neuter and release — program, through a foster program and at the newly opened Catfé Lounge in Ferndale. About 50 cats rescued by the group are residing in 18 foster homes awaiting permanent adoptions, Iovan said.

Police have asked people with information to call Hazel Park Detective Janeen Gielniak at (248) 542-6161, Ext. 345.

Iovan said that if people are more comfortable calling her group, she will pass the information along to investigators in Hazel Park. Messages may be left on the Ferndale Cat Shelter answering machine at (248) 733-3554.

» Photo via Ferndale Cat Shelter