Durban North animal lover determined to catch cat poisoner
The resident said he is convinced that someone deliberately poisoned the three cats, leaving them to die a slow, painful death.
DURBAN North resident, Owen O’Neill, has been left devastated and outraged after three of his beloved feral cats died after ingesting poison earlier in the week.
O’Neill said that he is convinced that the killings were done deliberately by a ‘lowlife’ individual. The three cats were part of a sterilised feral colony living at the Old Fort Chapel Gardens in KE Masinga Road.
What’s more, the animal lover said that he has a suspicion of who the perpetrator could be and is in the process of gathering evidence to open a case.
“This has been soul destroying. Only a lowlife person would do this, and they must pay for their crimes,” he said last week.
O’Neill has for several years been feeding eight feral cat colonies throughout the Durban area.
“They were all friendly cats and would wait for me every day outside the gate,” he said.
The heartbroken resident said he made the first discovery on Wednesday last week. He found Picasso’s decomposed body while feeding her now orphaned kitten. On Sunday he found the second carcass lying behind a concrete bin.
Then on Monday he rushed to the vet with Bandit, who was in a severe state.
“Her tongue and the roof of her mouth was necrotic and severely burned. Her breathing was low and you could see that she was in a lot of pain. But, when I came to visit a few days later she still mustered the strength to walk up to the cage door so that I could pet her,” said an emotional O’Neill.
He said all her symptoms indicate that she had ingested a type of insecticide.
O’Neill’s suspicions were fueled by the discovery of a strange container with raw mince near his feeding station a few weeks ago. He destroyed the food, deducing that it was poisoned meat.
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