Fears cat killer is on the loose after pet is killed and mutilated in Elm

A distraught pet owner is offering a £200 reward amid and others are organising a public meeting amid fears there is a cat killer on the loose in two Fenland villages.

Heartbroken Pam Bower, 82, is offering the cash to help catch whoever brutally attacked and killed her cat Simba over the weekend.

Simba, who was one of Pam’s three fairly elderly cats, was found dead and mutilated in her garden at her home in the Henry Warby Avenue area of Elm. His death comes two weeks after one of her other cats, Tinker, disappeared without trace.

Pam’s daughter Julie Macpherson took Simba’s body to an out of hours vets in King’s Lynn on Sunday.

The vet told Julie the cat had been kicked or hit so hard his lower jaw had been broken and with such force his eyeballs had popped out.

After he had been killed the attacker then used some kind of sharp implement to cut off his tail and chop it into a number of pieces – taking at least one piece with them.

The incident has been reported to both the police and the RSPCA and Julie put a post on the local Facebook discussion forum, which prompted many others to come forward to report similar incidents and saw calls for the community to come together to help catch the perpetrator.

As a result there is a meeting at the Sportsman in Elm tonight for anyone affected, people are invited to be there from around 8pm.

Julie said: “It seems at least 10 cats have gone missing from both Elm and Friday Bridge in the last two or three weeks. Several people reported their cats had also been attacked – it would seem we have a serial cat killer in the area.”

The most disturbing part of what happened to Simba is the fact the attack was carried out in Pam’s back garden, which is enclosed by a six foot fence.

Pam said: “I really don’t know how they got into the garden, or why they did what they did.

“Simba was a very gentle cat, he rarely left the garden and would more often than not spend the day lounging in the sun on a bench.”

After news of what happened to Simba was posted on Facebook other cat owners posted images of their injured cats, and others reported their pets missing.

As a result cat owners in the two villages are now planning a meeting to discuss a timeline to try to work out what has been happening to their pets. A date and venue is being organised – follow the Elm and Friday Bridge Discussion Forum for more information.

Anyone with information should contact Downham Market police station by calling 101.