A ‘traumatised’ family is now too scared to leave their home after their kitten was found decapitated outside.
Carly Watson said her children are ‘devastated’ as vets say the 11-month-old pet, named Lady, was likely killed by a human, not an animal.
Lady was found beheaded on a patch of grass just yards from the family home in Portsmouth after going missing for a night.
‘I couldn’t believe that someone cut off my baby’s head,’ she said. ‘I am absolutely devastated.’
‘She added: ‘My children are scared to go in the garden and I cannot leave my house.
‘I have had to have a friend come and stay with us. We are traumatised’
The vet who examined Lady’s remains reported the injuries were most likely caused by a person.
Mum-of-six Ms Watson said the vet did x-rays and scans, adding: ‘The vet picked up that she had been kicked in the stomach.
‘And if it had been a fox there would have been tooth marks and more blood.’
The incident has been reported to police and the South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty, an animal welfare group investigating suspicious cat killings across the country since 2014.
Volunteer Tony Jenkins said: ‘Foxes very, very rarely attack cats because they swipe at them, and if the cat was attacked by a fox it would be a bloody mess.
‘Sometimes the claws can be broken, there can be the signs of a scuffle. There was none of that.’
Ms Watson added: ‘I never thought something like this would happen to me. It makes you realise it can happen to anyone.’
From 2014 to 2018 there was widespread fear across the south of England that a killer, dubbed the ‘Croydon Cat Killer’, was butchering hundreds of pets.
But the Metropolitan Police concluded the deaths were likely caused by animals scavenging after vehicle collisions.
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