Yonkers cat killings: Last year's slaughter went unreported
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Yonkers cat killings: Last year's slaughter went unreported

From: Lohud.com
April 28, 2014

Information and contacts regarding the horrific cat murders in Yonkers on April 25, 2014: It is now verified that these animals were beaten to death. This is the third time cats have been the victim of violence in Yonkers in the last year, with no arrests by SPCA HLE - according to a Journal News article, this same horror was found before by a sanitation worker - who never reported it!! What is that about??

Lungaro (SPCA HLE) also states these killings 'aren't related' to the cat poisonings on Bretton Road - how does he know that? There were no arrests in that incident either - nor of the goose beaten almost to death at the New Rochelle yacht club.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 914-377-7724. 914-941-7797.
Text: "YPD" 847-411.
Twitter: @SPCAwestchester

Westchester SPCA, which is mandated to do HLE, is holding yet another fundraiser; tell them you won't donate till there is a serious investigation into the Yonkers cat killings, the goose beating in New Rochelle, till methods such as surveillance are used, which they refuse to use now, till the highest-taxed county in the U.S has a properly-working HLE dept.

Email:[email protected]

(Full text below: according to this article, a sanitation worker found similar deaths last year - and never reported it!! )

'Lungarosaid there are many feral cats in the area and there has been some tension over feeding stations that some residents have established.

"Some people get frustrated with the people who feed them," he said. He said it was possible the dead cats were put in the trees "to taunt the people that are feeding the cats."

Some people get frustrated with feeding them??This is unparalled sick violence to innocent beings, not 'frustration over feeding', why is he even speculating such a thing, he has no idea why these animals were killed; this also makes it sound like its the fault of people feeding them. Totally unacceptable statement on the part of HLE.

Dead Cats Found Hanging From Tree Branches in Westchester Were Beaten: SPCA

25 Dead Cats Found Hanging in Yonkers Trees

Alley Cat Allies is offering a reward:

Yonkers cat killings: Last year's slaughter went unreported
Lohud.com
April 25, 2014

At least some of the 25 dead cats found in plastic bags hanging from trees in Yonkers were killed with blows to the head.

YONKERS –As a city sanitation worker, Brett Pisano isn't easily spooked by what he finds during a cleanup. But the bags of dead cats hanging from branches in the woods off of Overlook Terrace on Thursday were an exception, not because they were there — he spotted something similar last year — but because there were so many.

"It was obvious," the 25-year-old Yonkers resident said. "Someone was going out of their way to kill cats."

Last year, Pisano had come across hanging bags of dead cats on the same tree branches, but there were only a couple of them, which made him think it was someone disposing of pets that had died naturally. This year, as Pisano and his crew went to clear the same woods, he spotted a line of bags that raised his suspicions. Even before starting the cleanup, he was drawn to them.

"I kind of had a feeling there were cats," he said. "But I thought, 'No way this is all cats.' Sure enough, they were all cats."

Necropsies on the bodies of three of the 25 cats found in the plastic bags — including a kitten who was only weeks old — found they were killed by blows to the head, said Ernest Lungaro, director of enforcement at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Westchester.

Lungaro said a baseball bat, two shovels and a metal pipe were found in the area and collected as evidence; it was not known if they had been used as weapons.

Some of the remains were recent, while others were skeletons that may have been there for up to a year. Lungaro said he didn't know if other necropsies would be done because of the decay.

Bags of dead cats found hanging from trees off of Overlook Terrace in Yonkers on April 24, 2014. (Video by Hoa Nguyen/The Journal News)

Lungaro said the killings would be treated as animal cruelty, a felony. He also said they were not connected with several cat poisonings that occurred in northern Yonkers last year.

Since Thursday, when news of the Overlook Terrace discovery spread, the SPCA has begun receiving multiple reports of missing felines and dead cats, Lungaro said. He said last year's sighting had not been reported to the SPCA by sanitation workers so the incident was never investigated.

Pisano said this year's finding was much more gruesome, prompting workers to call police. In addition to the sealed bags, a dead white cat was found spilling out from a bag, eviscerated either through decay or other means, he said.

While residents interviewed on the block said they didn't notice the dead cats, Pisano said the cats, found near a well-worn path through the woods, likely were seen by multiple people.

"People have obviously seen that and turned their backs on it," he said. "People obviously knew something was going on there and they kept it quiet."

Yonkers police are assisting with the investigation.

"At this point there is nothing obviously found at the scene that this is ritualistic, but the investigation is still ongoing," Yonkers Detective Lt. Patrick McCormack said.

On Friday, a Maryland-based organization offered a $750 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the deaths.
"This is a disturbing and horrific case of animal cruelty, and we need to find whoever is responsible," said Becky Robinson, president of Alley Cat Allies.

Overlook Terrace is a dead-end street off Locust Hill Avenue featuring a mix of homes, apartment buildings and a supervised residential treatment center for people with mental illness and addictive disorders. The cats were found inside a fenced-in wooded area. The fencing had been cut open. DPW workers say they clean large amounts of garbage from the spot every spring.

SPCA Executive Director Shannon Laukhuf issued a statement calling the killings a "depraved act of animal cruelty."

"I want to assure the public that we will use every resource available to us to bring those responsible to swift justice," Laukhuf said.

Yonkers police are asking anyone with information to call 914-377-7724.

Tips also can be left anonymously by texting "YPD" with the tip to 847-411.

Residents also can call the SPCA's Animal Cruelty Hotline at 914-941-7797.

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