This is a most peculiar cat story and I would like people to share it please to protect cats. It concerns a man, Paul Zhang, who was a self-anointed ‘cat euthanizer’ of stray cats in Royal Palm Beach, southeast Florida. He is actually a cat killer who at one time successfully disguised himself as a cat rescuer. He is a devious person and has disappeared.
And he is mixed up about what euthanasia means (or does he care?) and he is also mixed up about the law on trapping and euthanising stray cats which is why the authorities want to interview him (they should have arrested him). He has failed to discriminate between owned and non-owned cats. It is likely that he has been killing people’s cats. Extraordinary.
There is a website dedicated to stopping him! It contains a picture and description of Zhang. The site has been up since at least Decemember 2011 – almost 8 years so Zhang has been doing this for years. It took a long time to get him, didn’t it?
Zhang admits to euthanising 76 stray cats. He told people that he was connected to animal sanctuaries and would take care of the cats but he euthanised them instead. He justified this by saying:
“What better sanctuary than being in a blissful spirit world where they will truly be safe?”
How did he acquire the cats to euthanise? Here is one example as reported. A West Palm Beach woman needed to find homes for several stray cats. She was introduced to Zhang who was supposed to have connections to sanctuaries in Stuart and Orlando. Zhang went to the woman’s home and took four cats: Bandit, Sparky, Pandy and Lucky. The next day he took five more cats and Daisy a Chihuahua dog. He euthanised them all. He conned the woman who must be distraught.
“Ending suffering is more important that keeping animals alive” – Zhang.
There are other examples of how Zhang inveigled his way into the lives of cat rescuers to take the cats off them and then euthanise them.
It is not clear to me how he euthanised them all. Did he use authorized drugs on every occassion? There is a report that on one occassion he used a local vet who specialises in ‘home pet euthanasia’ (sounds dodgy to me) in March 2019. Zhang took 13 cats to the vet who euthanised four who were sick. What happened to the rest?
Zhang works in finance and is a ‘vegan advocate’ who dislikes TNR. He prefers killing cats to trap-neuter-return (TNR). He was a self-appointed grim reaper of stray cats because he was not truly euthanising them.
Euthanasia applies to humanely killing cats who are for instance terminally ill and in distress. He conveniently failed to understand that killing cats with pentobarbital is not euthanasia if the cats had curable diseases. It appears that he was engaged in straightforward killing to carry out his personal mission based on false beliefs.
Zhang was found out when an anonymous complaint was made and Animal Care and Control investigated. He is meant to appear in a court facility to answer questions from Palm Beach County’s Animal Care and Control officers but Zhang has sold his condo and moved to Virginia.
He wants to evade court proceedings. Asked if he would appear in court, Zhang said, “I don’t know yet”. That means no by the way in case you wondered. There is no doubt in my mind that Zhang has committed crimes but the authorities have not got to that stage yet. This surprises me.
Location
Source: A summarised version of the gm5-lkweb.com webpage and stoppaulzhang.wordpress.com.
No, I have not heard it. Thanks for the info DH. I’ll check it out and write an updating page if it is true.
Michael Broad I just saw a post today saying Paul Zhang has committed suicide yesterday !! You hear this news also?
Thanks Deen, I’ll do a follow up page on this today.
Paul Zhang now lives in Roanoke, VA with his husband Joseph Belmonte. Please alert everyone you know in that area, especially those who have outdoor cats or manage a TNR colony, that Zhang is most certainly continuing his cat killing activities in his new neighborhood. Roanoke is near Salem, VA and is not too far from the North Carolina border, FYI.