Are the Ipswich cat disappearances linked to an illegal trade in cat fur that is based in Belgium? I am speculating that the biggest cat welfare issue in the UK right now – the disappearance of over 100 cats from Ipswich and their apparent torture – is linked to an illegal market in cat fur. The cat and dog fur trade is a shockingly despicable and disgustingly heartless business. I won’t show a picture because they are simply too horrible.
My speculation is based on these facts (perhaps I am adding 2+2 to make 5 but I wish to flag up the possibility):
- One of a couple of cats that appears to have escaped or somehow survived the cat killers is described as having been tortured with his fur pulled out. I don’t know if this is relevant but it hints at the fur trade. In China they pull the fur out of living rabbits. In other words the rabbit fur is farmed.
- Ipswich is a port. It has direct shipping connections via the English Channel to Ostend, Belgium.
- In a Daily Mail article (not sure of the date) there is a reference to a furrier, Piet vander Eycken who operates from Belgium and I presume from a town on the coast, possibly Ostend, who brazenly declared that the bulk of his cats (for their fur) were brought from England on a ferry.
- There is an increase in criminal gangs in the UK. These gangs in my view are sometimes linked to the new European Union countries whose citizens have total freedom of movement throughout Europe. England is regarded as a place of rich and easy pickings and the cat fur market is lucrative.
The market in cat and dog fur is banned in Europe. On June 19th 2007 the European Parliament unanimously voted to ban the trading of cat and dog fur in European Union countries. The ban came into force on Jan 1st 2009.
However, there is a lot of illegal gang activity in the UK which goes unreported because it is politically incorrect to speculate that Britain is importing crime from continental Europe specifically from the new EU countries such as Romania and Latvia (just a couple of randomly chosen examples).
I have a genuine concern that the cat fur trade is back in England despite the ban. Banning something does mean it won’t happen. It is incredibly difficult to enforce such a ban.
Think about it. In England people let their cats wander outside. These cats are loved companions to their caretakers. To criminal gangs the cats are a crop to be harvested…..
This is terrible. We must be vigilant at all times. Even in our small, close knit, cat friendly neighbourhood we are alert over our cats and each others cats too.
In a way we actually have our very own Feline Watch as well as our Neighbourhood Watch!
Cat lovers need to unite and look out for the safety of ALL cats!
It really is terrible, R.
Safeguarding cats is such a hard job.
It’s a sad state when we can’t trust our fellow humans.
Ipswich is a city with a lot of problems with long term unemployment and poverty. This series of financial recessions have hit it very hard. It is no different to any other city in the UK.
Where poverty and deprivation thrive, animals and humaneness does not. But, it isn’t always the poor and uneducated who carry out such atrocities on animals. Remember Dusty the cat, slammed against the wall by two middle class American kids some years ago now. Those two young males had every advantage going, the best education, the lot. But still they hurt Dusty, relentlessly. Because of their paternal connections, they got off with it too. Some cat poisoners in the UK have been found to be straight out of the middle classes. Selfishness and cruelty thrive due to both poverty and extreme riches.
It doesn’t have to be a cruelty top trumps contest, in the UK we do have an Animal Welfare Act, and I wish we could share it with the world. I also wish it was policed more actively.
I don’t think any country wants to be known for its cruelty to animals.
I think it’s a truth that if there are humans in a location, there will be animal cruelty there also. Whatever the race, creed, wealth, poverty – there will be cruelty.
Capitalism has made no winners out of animals, but many losers.
I agree that the middle classes can be as cruel and anyone, definitely – probably more so. I just feel that this sort of mass disappearance is beyond the sort of criminality perpetrated on cats by one person. It smells of gang crime to me but I could well be wrong and I am speculating.
I can understand your speculation Michael. When one has been exposed through humane work to help animals, to the depths of depravity humans will sink to,to abuse animals, the ever present possibility is the unthinkable, that someone deliberately carried out these hideous acts of cruelty intentionally and in an organised and financially profitable way.
I’d just like to add as a note that in the UK, the tabloid newspaper The Daily Mirror reports many, many cases of animal cruelty weekly, where the so called “quality” newspapers rarely do. I dislike the press and the media in general a great deal, but The Mirror does report the horrors of animal cruelty, and they are explicit reports. It’s also one of the few newspapers to give a voice to those at the bottom of the heap of our society.
Our “shelter” system is nothing like the US system. Many of our councils use private kennels and catteries as “pounds”. Many animals don’t make it out of that system and although we don’t have a mass slaughterhouse system like the NYC ACC, or the barbaric kill houses in the southern states, we do kill hundreds of thousands of homeless and unwanted animals a year. An unfortunate and often denied truth is that some of the biggest and richest animal charities in this country are some of the biggest animal killers. This includes many branches of Cats Protection. I know some of you won’t like to read that, but it’s a truth that needs acknowledging and challenging. The fact that so little of this convenience killing is reported, is a great shame on this country.
Every nation on the planet needs to have a serious word with itself regarding animal welfare.
Thank you for your comment, Elizabeth.
The killing is everywhere it seems.
Some days, it seems hopeless to stop it.
But, I just have to fight, because I can’t stand it.
I live in Ipswich and we have lots of jobs thank you. We are not deprived or anything like that. Why must you all think badly off us
Hi Libby. Thanks for commenting. Every major city in the UK has an underbelly and that is why I mentioned it. I am just speculating. I don’t think badly of Ipswich in particular. I think badly of people who hurt cats.
No but Elizabeth does. We are all very worried at the moment one of my cats hasn’t come home for his tea yet and his first in. It’s horrible to think someone could do this to the point we locking them in at nights. They are animals at the end of the day and we shouldn’t keep them locked up
I know the culture in the UK is to let cats roam. In the USA they keep them in much more. Sometimes under extraordinary circumstances it is best to keep them in until you feel the danger has passed. Buy some cat teases (feathers on a stick) and other toys and try and keep them entertained until you believe it is safe for them to go out. Safety is the first priority of a cat caretaker. Thanks for commenting.
Oh I have trust me they are now all in and we got a new kitten 3 days ago do they not best pleased with me. But they let dogs run around in USA no problem we have them on leads
Wrong Libby.
No dog is allowed unleashed in America.
If found, they are grabbed and taken to the county shelter and killed. The same is true for cats. Free-roaming cats are killed.
That’s one of the reasons why many U.S. caretakers have inside-only cats.
How the hell can u keep cats indoors. Wouldn’t that be hell
Plenty do keep cats indoors these days in the UK, because the level of crimes against cats is depressingly high and incidents frequent.
The trick is to make the home environment as cat friendly as possible.
I think Michael has covered how to do this on this site. Lots of good suggestions and there’ll be a discussion about the psychological welfare of indoor cats too, which is the most important aspect.
It can be done, you can have happy indoor cats, but it’s sometimes a human need to see them roaming free not just a cat need.
It can take a while to take a previously free roaming cat and get them to accept and be happy indoors. But it can be done.
Cats are not dogs, obviously, but there are a growing body of cat caretakers in the UK who have trained their cats to walk out on a body harness with a lead. This is quite common in the USA, where there are extra environmental concerns such as rabies, coyotes, cougars, bears, wolves etc.
There are already a few companies in the UK who provide cat proof fencing, so that cats may have free access to the outdoors, but safe from predators, abusers and of course, the biggest threat to cats – motor vehicles.
Fenced in patio areas are becoming more common too. In the USA these are called “Catios”
I grew up in a time when cats could roam free in the UK as standard, but sadly, society has changed a lot and I believe that cats face more threats and abuse, so restricting outdoor access is something to consider.
Hope the new kitten settles in with your cat family soon. You can post pictures on here too (hint hint) we all love to see a kitten!
Best wishes.
Libby, I most certainly do not think badly of the people of Ipswich, I have a friend there who is involved in helping those who have little, the people who no one else will help, those who are struggling. He reports honestly about the poverty and deprivation he encounters. Every city, town or village in this country has a mixture of people and circumstances. The truth about unemployment and availability of jobs is that there are not enough jobs available that provide even living wage. There are thousands unemployed in Ipswich and the surrounding areas (just like every city in the country) If there were enough jobs, that paid a living wage, then there would be very few people on JSA. Zero hours contracts prevail and people cannot survive on that alone. I am not attacking you, your city or the people of Ipswich. I am stating fact. The whole country is struggling badly, despite what the mainstream media say about recovery.
I am sorry that I offended you, I had no intention to.
I hope your cat has come home by now and all is well.
A qualifier?
An outside force and, surely, not any nutcase Brit? Must be the influx of fur traders.
Sorry, but deranged people are everywhere.
No one is exempt.
The 2 cases cited in the previous article are clearly demonstrations of what is never reported in the UK.
All are kept underwrap to make it seem that they are a nation of compassion. Not so much the case really.
Ofcourse, the U.S. is more open. But, if you calculate the country mass in comparison to the U.K., you may find that the percentage of abuses in the UK far exceed the U.S.
So sorry.
Oh wait, I guess you mean they do this to cats the same way they pull wool out of living sheep instead of shearing the sheep. I get it now.
Brain-damaged much?
Woody what are you saying? Sheep are sheared. Who is pulling wool out of sheep?
Good god, I think I know what Jimbo is trying to say.
The theory of fur trading doesn’t make sense really because traders wouldn’t pluck the coat off a cat. I’m sure they have more efficient methods.
The fur is pulled from Angora rabbits and woven into sweaters, scarves and other knitwear.
I don’t believe the pulled fur on the cats has anything to do with the cat fur trade. That sickening trade requires the whole pelt so the animals are skinned, not plucked.
To me, the pulled fur and other injuries sustained point towards a sadistic individual or group who simply enjoy torturing and killing defenceless victims.
Agreed.
My best guess would be a hoodlum or gang of hoodlums.
Woody you never miss a chance to be obnoxious do you, that’s a true sign of brain damage.
I have contacted no. 10 about this.
Good. To me it smells of criminality and not one person who is a cat hater. It is too big and too systematic and Ipswich is a convenient city/town being close to the continent by ferry.
Very awaking but sad article with very heavy words 🙁
FUR TRADE OF CHINA… EAST IS BEAST…always be careful about your cats, I will never let any kitten wandering free from the 2015 and let her/him be limited on my terrace and bring every thing they want there within their territory.
I have gained a lot of terrible experience from past now, so I think that cat lovers of Britain may also convert their thoughts. They must wake up now, and when there is war, there are precautions. Are we in a condition of war with cat lovers and anti-cat lovers??? are these tiny fellows gonna pay the price for their beauty (fur)? We are care takers! why not act like parents, those parents whose children have been threatened by the half community of haters?
Wake up please, don’t let your cats roam free then! 🙁
We are at war with cat users and cat haters. But the biggest war is with business and using stray cats (or indeed any wandering cat) as a crop to be harvested. China has an enormous cat and dog fur market and hundreds of thousands of cats are brutally killed annually for fur. There is a mountain of misery in China for cats and I hate them for it.
AGREED, me, too 🙁
I have seen a single video and left no video unseen.
Their way of taming the cat with a hard stick and they beat the cat, the cat acts like a dog, then. Sit…the cat sits. No treat! Stand…The cat stands, No treat! 🙁
I just cry for it and imagine my self in the place of that cat. horrible!!! That’s good not born in China. But not proud to be Pakistani until the nation is not showing positive progress and become honest till their ends.
Hate LIES and want to stand with the TRUTH 🙁