Kennewick, W.A.: don’t assume that the serial cat killer is a person

There’s a disturbing cat news story coming out of Kennewick in Washington State, USA which has similarities to the Croydon Cat Killer stories that haunted the UK about a year ago. A Kennewick restaurant owner, Joel Watson, has offered a $3,000 reward to catch Kennewick’s serial cat killer. Kennewick police continue to hunt for the person responsible for killing five cats. The alleged person is leaving the remains of the cats in neighbourhoods across the city.

The most recent victim was found on the 900 block of North Kellogg Street last Tuesday morning. The body was the fifth found in two weeks. I’m told by the Tri-City Herald newspaper that the first cat was found beheaded within the property boundaries of its owner. Following that another cat was found cut in half near Vancouver Street and 37th Avenue. This killing was posted on the Facebook page of Tri-Cities Animal Shelter and Control Services.

The shelter reported two more cat deaths discovered along a canal near 17th Avenue and Kellogg Street and on the 1100 block of Westpark Hills Drive. The police believe that the cats were killed with a sharp blade somewhere else and then left around the neighbourhood.

I am not suggesting that the police are wrong. But I would also suggest that a forensic analysis is carried out on the bodies to discount the possibility that they’ve been killed by wild animals. Or the cats may have been killed on the road and then eaten by a wild animal. This was the conclusion in the Croydon Cat Killer case. Kennewick certainly has coyotes in the town. Or it could be foxes. I’m not saying that that conclusion is correct either. It could well be the case that there is a genuine person going around Kennewick expressing his anger in society by killing and dismembering cats. The police just have to be sure that the less interest possibility is ticked off and discounted.