Gilroy woman claims to be victim of alleged break-ins, pet abuse

Cathy Canales, of Gilroy, keeps 19 dead fish in her freezer, hoping authorities will investigate her reports of a series of bizarre break-ins during which her pets – cats, guinea pigs, hamsters and this month, fish – have allegedly been mutilated, maimed and even killed, according to Canales.
Canales is now offering a monetary reward of an unspecified amount for information about these incidents, which have allegedly continued on-and-off for 15 years and have Canales and her 13-year-old daughter baffled and traumatized.
“It’s really hard to come home,” she said. “We get home and count heads to make sure our pets are all right.”
Sept. 3 marks the most recent incident where Canales, a single mother, has arrived home to allegedly find her residence burglarized and her pets attacked. She has lived for two years at her current residence near the intersection of Monterey Road and Church Street. And despite Canales having upgraded her home security system twice, she and her 13-year-old daughter Katie do not feel safe.
“This is how we have to live, in fear, because of this,” said Canales, who has moved four times in the past five years.
Since 2010, the Gilroy Police Department has responded roughly 10 times to reports of incidents at Canales’ residences, according to GPD Sgt. Pedro Espinoza. And speaking broadly, “we have responded to her house multiple times and most of what she reports is not substantiated,” Espinoza said.
Authorities have no leads due to what Espinoza calls a lack of evidence, and Canales says she can’t think of anyone who might have a vindictive personal grudge against her.
“There was nothing to substantiate any break-in [on Sept. 3] and no evidence other than her claim,” Espinoza said. “There was no evident point of entry or any contributing factors that would lead us to take a further look into her allegations.”
Espinoza added that police will continue to respond to Canales’ calls for help. He also pointed out that GPD officers are trained to look for hints that a crime has occurred.
But Espinoza said officers have yet to see evidence indicating an actual crime has been committed.
“It’s probably happening on the inside, or not at all,” he said.
Canales, jaded by her experience with the alleged incidents and what she calls a lack of due diligence on the part of local authorities, said she’s not shocked at that statement.
“If it’s coming from the inside, and as many animals I have had and still have, why weren’t they taken from me?” she countered. “I don’t do animal rescue because I harm animals. I’ve been an animal lover my entire life.”
She maintains that she and her daughter are the victims of bizarre and cruel crimes.
Following some of the alleged incidents, Canales claims she has returned home to find hamsters with their ears cut off, some with broken necks or smashed heads; cats being shaved and bleached; and recently fish being poisoned and mutilated.
Canales’ daughter, Katie, has struggled with panic attacks as a result of the incidents, according to Canales.
She says the alleged culprit(s) take belongings and valuables too – most recently a gold necklace valued at $300.
On the day of the alleged Sept. 3 break-in, Canales said she returned home from a housekeeping job after picking Katie up from school.
“I got a phone call from my alarm company that the garage door had been breached and the motion sensor was signaling. Since I was out of town working, my emergency contact was notified and (the alarm company representative) asked if police should be dispatched. I had them call the police,” Canales recalled.
Canales said she went in and checked the zones where the alarm sensors are.
“I happened to turn on the fish tank light and it looked like they were bleeding,” Canales said. “It was horrible. Some had their scales scraped off and others were dead.”
Canales believes her fish were poisoned and a few were mutilated. She keeps their carcasses in separate bags in her freezer, their bodies taking up the entire shelf on the door.
During a visit to her home on Sept. 12, the fish tank was still full of dirtied water Canales claimed contained some type of toxin. She asked authorities to test the water, but Espinoza said “we don’t typically do that” and GPD does not have any plans to do so.
Canales is taking matters into her own hands and offering a cash reward for any information that might end the alleged break-ins and animal cruelty.
“The reward is an incentive to bring this to a close. You know, when you get to the end of your rope, you hope there’s a knot,” she said, sitting on a couch in her living room next to one of her other aquariums still populated with fish. “It’s not a coincidence this keeps happening. And no matter what I’m doing to protect my daughter, my family, the results are the same. Now it’s escalating.”
At Canales’ request, GPD Officer Randall Bentson visited her home Sept. 12 and examined the evidence she has kept frozen ever since the incident.
Canales said she is grateful Bentson came out to investigate and hopes something comes of it.
But unless there is a confession, GPD catches a culprit in the act or evidence is discovered, it’s likely nothing will, according to Espinoza. If Canales reports another incident, though, he said police would check it out.
On Tuesday, Espinoza told the Dispatch there has been no update on Bentson’s report from his Sept. 12 visit and GPD is no longer investigating the incident.
Anyone with information regarding the suspect or suspects associated with the alleged break-ins and maiming of pets at Canales’ residence is encouraged to call GPD at (408) 846-0350.