GILROY
– Cats, both strays and pets, have been dying mysteriously on
Ronan Avenue.
Staff Report
GILROY – Cats, both strays and pets, have been dying mysteriously on Ronan Avenue.
Residents believe someone is intentionally setting out poison to control what Dawn Appelman calls an “explosion” of stray cats in her neighborhood.
City police, who are Gilroy’s only animal control agency, can’t tell how the cats died but confirmed that killing them intentionally is a crime, falling under the category of animal cruelty.
“We don’t do blood toxin (tests) on every dead animal,” police Sgt. Noel Provost said, “(but) if we did develop a suspect, I can assure you that the case would be thoroughly prosecuted.”
When police Community Service Officer Maria Cabatingan picked up a dead cat on Tuesday from Appelman’s house – a stray her daughter had adopted and was attached to – she reported that it was the sixth from the neighborhood recently.
Appelman and her next-door neighbor, Diane Hernandez, say the count is much higher – 21 in the past six weeks, they say a police officer told them. Three weeks ago, Hernandez and her son found five dead cats in one day and eight in a week, she said. They reported them all to police, she said.
This is not the first string of cat deaths on Ronan Avenue, Appelman and Hernandez say. In the fall, 12 cats were found dead in a short time span.
All the dead cats showed the same symptoms, according to Appelman and Hernandez.
“They’re throwing up chicken,” Appelman said.
