Monday afternoon and spring sunlight is sneaking into Ansell Avenue, a peaceful, rural street in Chatham, the Medway town when home to Charles Dickens.
This is an enjoyable location to live, with its thoroughly mown yard edges, progressing trees and cool semi-detached houses.
Two well-groomed cats are relaxing in the sun on a terracotta doorstep. All appears well however, ominously, their owner — a lady who chooses not to be called for worry of reprisals — informs the Mail that, in recent weeks, Florence and Boofy have actually been revealing indications of stress and anxiety. And with good cause, it appears.
When the Mail went to, the locals of this relaxing street were delighting in the very first day of the Easter bank vacation weekend.
Night-time informs a various story, nevertheless. From sunset onwards, Ansell Avenue and its instant environments is being terrorised by a criminal activity wave that is showing as mysterious as it is unsolvable.
The criminal — or, most likely, criminals — almost definitely resides in the city, that makes the epidemic even more chilling. The method operandi of the serial wrongdoer is terribly unique.
At least one animal rescue group has actually gotten lots of reports of cats being abducted, shaved and after that went back to their owners, often missing out on spots of fur on their undersides.
In the most severe cases, owners report that their cats have actually been shorn entirely — to the level that they look like hairless Sphynx cats.
Similar cases have actually been reported to animal well-being charities and the authorities all over Britain in recent weeks. Incidents have actually taken place in Brighton and Birmingham, and even as far north as Aberdeen.
The epicentre of the break out lacks doubt Ansell Avenue, where a minimum of half a lots cats have actually been shaved in the previous couple of weeks. Here, cat owners — and, naturally, their cats — are residing in worry, understanding it cannot be long prior to the electrical clippers are wielded once again.
Take Ozzy. He resides on the street and has actually been shaved no less than 7 times in the previous year.
His worried owner, a young mom, Donnamarie Ellis, informed the Mail: ‘It is exceptionally weird. At initially, we believed he had actually been assaulted by another cat. But it’s not simply one spot. The fur has actually come off in portions.
‘We attempt to keep Ozzy in your home, specifically after dark, however he still handles to leave. Every time he goes out, he returns with additional spots missing out on — it appears like somebody’s got a beard trimmer and they shave him. There is something extremely odd about it.’
Donnamarie has actually reported the shaving episodes however has actually been informed there is absolutely nothing Kent authorities can do, given that no criminal offense has actually occurred.
Shaving a cat is not considered as a criminal activity. But Donnamarie said: ‘It’s animal abuse which is a criminal activity. The RSPCA prosecute individuals all the time. The reality is that the authorities can’t be troubled and they simply wish to fob me off.’
Were these troubling episodes a one-off, and Ozzy the only regional feline to have actually fallen nasty of the phantom electric shaver, the proof may recommend that simply someone is included.
But reports of comparable attacks — copycat attacks, possibly — have actually put into regional well-being groups all over the nation.
A report of the criminal activity wave even wound up in the foreign news pages of the Washington Post last month.
Meanwhile, Natasha McPhee, CEO of the rescue group Animals Lost and Found in Kent, has actually systematically created a map of all the UK’s cat-shaving events.
In Kent alone, she has actually found that the variety of attacks goes to almost 100 over the previous year or two.
One owner, fundraising event Linda Rollason, who now resides in the West Midlands, informed the Mail that 2 of her cats have actually been shaved. One, Biscuit, was drawn from her then home in Brighton — prior to the electric shaver struck once again.
‘When I went up here, among Biscuit’s kittens, Spook — she’s all-white and appears like a ghost — was likewise abducted and shaved. It was awful — and I raged,’ said Linda.
Natasha McPhee initially ended up being conscious of this amazing phenomenon about 5 years back when among her cats, Lola, returned home newly shaved and plainly traumatised.
‘Afterwards, Lola was having problem urinating,’ said Natasha, who takes care of a menagerie of rescue dogs and cats with her partner, Dee Potter.
‘We took her to the veterinarian, who informed us that, in cats, this is an apparent indication of distress — leaving aside the marks made by the individual who shaved her.
‘Even now, you can still see it — the spot that was shaved grew back with curly fur. We were clearly extremely dissatisfied with what occurred.’
Since she began to map the attacks, Natasha has actually developed a photo of the electric shaver’s — or razors’ — techniques. She is encouraged that they are utilizing a hand-held. battery-powered, cordless trimmer.
‘A mobile generator would be too loud,’ she said.
Most of the attacks appear to occur in the evening. Natasha has actually thought about a number of intentions: ‘We have actually believed it may be a TikTok trend which kids are shaving the cats in their location for a laugh.
‘But the important things is that TikTok fads inevitably include some degree of narcissism — it is just enjoyable if your face is included.
‘And no one would wish to be shot shaving a cat, as they’d wind up being recognized. More likely, I’m persuaded that a few of these individuals have an ominous hatred of cats.
‘Sometimes, when I have actually published information on social networks about the latest attacks, I have actually seen bold, awful, confidential remarks. Things like: “I dislike cats since they eliminate birds”; “I dislike cats since they poo in my garden”; “I dislike cats since they rip up my flowers”.
‘Yes, they might, however perhaps these individuals must spend more time in their gardens and the cats would keep away. Unlike dogs, cats tend to keep to themselves.’
Some individuals on Ansell Avenue are still dealing with the epidemic as a joke, asking our press reporter and professional photographer if it was a late April Fools’ Day trick.
One citizen, with a laugh on his face, said: ‘We all understand that it’s extremely essential to have a pastime. Each to their own, I state.’
Natasha, naturally, stops working to see the amusing side. She has actually satisfied a number of the ravaged cat-owners whose family pets have actually been returned, not simply with shaved fur, however often with injuries, too.
And Samantha Watson, a cat behaviour professional for the RSPCA, informed the Mail: ‘They’re going to discover the procedure of being held down and shaved extremely stressful, specifically since it’s done by a complete stranger.’
Natasha fears that cat-shaving might end up being what criminologists and police professionals call a ‘entrance’ criminal activity that can result in even more major offenses.
While animal charities such as the RSPCA and Cats Protection are taking the attacks seriously, up until now nobody in Kent or anywhere else in the UK has actually been brought to justice.
As for the authorities, a representative recommended it was for the RSPCA to handle, since it is the ‘lead firm’ in prosecuting cases of cruelty and animal well-being.
But the RSPCA explained that the charity gets countless calls every year from individuals worried about animal cruelty, including: ‘We need to prioritise the emergency situations.’ Needless to state, this is far from the very first cat-related criminal activity spree this nation has actually seen throughout the years.
In 2021, Brighton security personnel Steven Bouquet was imprisoned for 5 years for stabbing to death 9 cats and impairing 7 more over a number of months.
He was ultimately captured on CCTV hurting a cat with a knife and leaving a path of blood. Known as the Brighton Cat Killer, he passed away of cancer in 2015. Another series of gruesome attacks — at first believed to be the work of a human killer operating in Croydon, South London, and in which numerous cats were impaired or killed — was ultimately credited to foxes. The authorities invested more than £130,000 on the three-year examination.
Natasha is encouraged that these shaving attacks have the prospective to become something even more major. ‘Who understands whether cat shaving is some sort of sexual fetish?’ she said.
‘It would not shock me if there are cat-shaving groups hiding in trick on the dark web. They aren’t going to call themselves “cat razors”. They will have a a lot more harmless name such as, state, Feline Enthusiasts.
‘They are far cleverer than that — however they truly require to be brought to book.’
For the locals and cats of Ansell Avenue — and in other places in Britain — the day when the criminals are captured cannot come prematurely.
For the minute, nevertheless, the cats and their owners look as though they will be dealing with the spring and summer season locked inside their houses, trembling in the shadow of a callous set of battery-powered clippers.
