Three pet cats were killed and skewered on a barbed wire fence at The Rock late last week.
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The Rock resident Hope Cochrane broke down when she saw her beloved domestic short-haired cat Jack hanging lifeless from its hind leg.
Neighbours last saw the cat on Wednesday afternoon, which prompted Ms Cochrane to post of its disappearance on a community Facebook page.
An acquaintance who lives in a farmhouse near where the cats were found contacted Ms Cochrance over social media, fearing her cat was among them.
“She asked if I could meet her at the supermarket so I could follow her to where she’d seen him, but she pulled up short and told me there were cats hanging dead from a barbed wire fence,” Ms Cochrane said.
“I asked her if she could take them down because if it was Jack, I didn’t want to see him like that.
“When I rolled the black and white cat over I saw the little black dot on his chin, which is how I knew it was Jack.”
The good samaritan had earlier taken the cats off the fence, but they had been hung back up.
Ms Cochrance shuddered to think who would be capable of such a callous act.
“They must be sick people, truly twisted and evil.”
“As far as I'm concerned murderers start on innocent animals and work their way up.”
Ms Cochrane – whose lives five kilometres from where the animals were found – is confident her domestic cat could not have been mistaken as strays based on its grooming and demeanour.
Best Friends Rescue president Janey Adams said the act of displaying killed cats like trophies was “barbaric”.
“While I understand some people are frustrated with cats roaming free, there is no excuse for being deliberately cruel,” she said.
Given the cats were found five kilometres from the owner’s house, Mr Adams all but ruled out the possibility the cat had strayed on to someone’s property.
“It would be very unusual for three cats that are desexed to roam for kilometres together,” she said.
“I would suspect someone’s been deliberately targeting pets with the intention of cruelty.
“It’s not possible to mistake pet cats for ferals; ferals are very difficult to catch, resistant to being handled, will try to escape, scratch and bite.”
