NY Police Search for Serial Cat Killer Fearing for Public's Safety

By Ida Siegal, NBC New York

Credit: NBC News

Authorities are looking for the person who fatally shot and beat a pet cat in the lower Hudson River Valley in New York last month, and officials say the suspect may be the same individual who has killed three other cats near the area since July.

February 15, 2013 Updated Feb 15, 2013 at 10:11 AM PDT

Authorities are looking for the person who fatally shot and beat a pet cat in the lower Hudson River Valley in New York last month, and officials say the suspect may be the same individual who has killed three other cats near the area since July.

Officials in Putnam County say a Patterson, N.Y, man called the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Feb. 7 and said his cat appeared to have been shot while it was outside.

Authorities found the 7-month-old black and brown female Calico cat, named "Blackfoot," with a neck wound; the feline also appeared to be paralyzed from its mid-section to its hind paws.

Officials are looking into whether the latest case of cat abuse may be connected to a severed cat head found staged in August in an intersection half a mile from where Blackfoot was shot. Authorities are also investigating if those incidents are connected to two other cat beheadings in July several miles away in the Connecticut towns of Oxford and Fairfield.

"We responded to a call not quite half a mile from here where we found a decapitated cat's head that was placed in the middle of the road," said Ken Ross of the Putnam County SPCA. "That took place within a month of two cats that were found nearby in Connecticut in the same condition."

Authorities are concerned that the cat killer could move to more serious crimes.

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