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Jul 4, 2008 4:24 pm US/Central
Mutilated Cats Found In Dallas Neighborhood
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
A Dallas woman is wondering what kind of person would kill and mutilate her pet. The woman found her cat, Lucy, dead in a neighbor's yard on Wednesday.
After Lucy was killed pet owner Martha Wertheimer learned from neighbors that there have been two similar crimes against cats on the same eight-block stretch of Ridgelawn Drive in recent weeks.
Lucy was a 7-year-old tortoise-shell tabby living in an established, pristine, Northeast Dallas neighborhood. Wertheimer says she never dreamed her cat could meet such a cruel, senseless end. "I'm just lost without her. I'm heartbroken."
Wertheimer had been searching for her cat for two days, never dreaming Lucy would just be dumped next door.
The cat killing was malicious and deliberate. "I was looking for the collar and noticed it was slit from the neck down to between the legs, [a] very precise cut," Wertheimer explained. The cat's chest was cut open and all the insides removed.
Neighbor Norton Elbert was just outside his house when he saw something. "I found her cats' collar unsnapped, a blue collar, on the edge of our driveway and alley."
Dallas police have opened a criminal investigation and reportedly told neighbors it was likely the work of a teenage cult... a random act.
Disturbingly, another cat was found mutilated the next day just a few blocks away. That car was a stray but the act still worries some neighbors.
"It makes all of us want to get whoever's doing this and prosecute them to the fullest extent," Elbert said.
Lucy was a littermate of Wertheimer's surviving cat, Marvin. The pet owner says Lucy's brother senses the loss and grieves with her. "He's a different cat now. He's not outgoing like he usually is."
Wertheimer says she understands pets are not humans, but says Lucy was still loved, and will be missed and grieved over.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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