One family lost six cats to antifreeze poisoning
A family has been left heartbroken by the death of their cats through antifreeze poisoning. They believe that an antifreeze poisoner has deliberately killed six of their cats over the past five years. They believe that it is someone local to the area which it has to be said would be a commonsense appraisal because outdoor cats don’t go that far from their home.
Cats poisoned by antifreeze
I would suggest that it is probably someone living close by, a neighbour in effect. The RSPCA has launched an investigation into what would be criminal behaviour. Peter and Tami Jenkins of Burntwood, Staffordshire are the owners.
Three of the deaths occurred during the summer months which supports the theory that this is deliberate poisoning. In fact, modern vehicles do not require that the owner tops up the cooling system with antifreeze. Today, vehicle engines have sealed cooling units. You never need to go near the engine with antifreeze.
If a cat dies of antifreeze poisoning, the presumption, in my view, must be that it is a deliberate act by a person who does not like domestic cats on their street.
Mr Jenkins said:
“We are just devastated that this keeps happening. We love having cats and find it so worrying that this has happened time and time again. We have lived here for 15 years and had no issues until five years ago. Sometimes it makes you wonder if someone in the area has got something against cats in general.”
Response: find out who moved into the area five years ago and ask questions.
In general, too, there is nothing a veterinarian can do to save the life of a domestic cat who has been poisoned with antifreeze unless the response is very rapid. I do remember on one occasion a veterinarian administering vodka to a poisoned cat and the cat survived as I recall. Vodka is an antidote antifreeze but in the case of these cats it seems that they were euthanised by their veterinarian on each occasion.
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I’m compelled to return to that age-old problem of British cat owners letting their cats wander outside. Without in any way excusing the horrendous crime of poisoning domestic cats, this is surely an example where the cats’ owners could have done more to protect their cats. They could have kept them inside while an investigation took place. That would have been the logical way to proceed.
I know that an American cat owner reading this short article will probably be scratching their head wondering why Peter and Tami did not keep their cats inside after the first couple of poisonings.
My two cats broke a snowglobe and both died within days from ethylene glycol (antifreeze) poisoning
Source: Daily Mail