Toll of ‘weird’ feline deaths up to 6

Riverside County sheriff’s officials are investigating the recently reported suspicious deaths of three cats in the La Quinta area, bringing the total to six felines mysteriously found gutted, mutilated or shot in recent weeks.

Lt. Raymond Gregory, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said investigators believe the first three cat slayings, which took place within a 1-mile radius in the northern part of La Quinta, are linked.

He said in those cases the gutted cats had not been attacked by an animal. Gregory said it was less clear if animals could have killed the cats found more recently.

The first cat’s body was found with gunshot wounds May 29 in the gated community of Starlight Dunes. The next day, a cat was found gutted on Desert Stream Drive near La Quinta Park. The third incident occurred June 18, when a resident told police he found his cat with its stomach slit open in front of his home in the 44000 block of Foxtail Circle.

Gregory said the owners discarded the animals before the Sheriff’s Department could examine the carcasses.

“We didn’t have any physical evidence on the cats,” Gregory said. “And a few weeks went by, and it looked like isolated incidents until the third killing.”

Gregory said the initial news reports about the slayings generated more calls from cat owners about additional incidents, raising concerns by law enforcement officials that a cat killer -- whether human or not -- is on the loose.

The fourth suspicious cat death was reported Saturday, he said. The cat’s body was found torn apart in Bermuda Dunes, an unincorporated area north of La Quinta.

“Animals may have had access to the body in that case,” Gregory said.

A fifth cat’s body was found severed Sunday at the Renaissance housing development, at Avenue 50 and Jefferson Street in La Quinta. Its location, in the urban heart of the small town, and the way the body was placed suggest that a human may have caused the death, Gregory said.

The sixth feline death was reported Monday when a mutilated cat was found near a housing development at Washington Street and Miles Avenue in La Quinta.

“That one is the most suspicious,” Gregory said. “There were numerous cuts to the body and the skin was partially removed. And its location is more urban.”

Unlike the first three cat deaths, in which the animals’ carcasses were discarded by the owners, authorities have the bodies of the three most recently killed. As in human homicide investigations, officials photographed the scene of each death.

“We are talking with veterinarians and experts on animal- cruelty-type cases, and hoping to arrange having them view some of the bodies,” Gregory said.

He said the sheriff’s Indio station usually gets six or fewer animal cruelty calls a month on various types of animals, making the slew of cat slayings both “unusual and weird.”

“These are happening in many residential areas, so we are certainly urging the public to contact us if they see anything suspicious,” said Gregory, who also serves as assistant chief of the La Quinta Police Department, which is also investigating the cases. “The public should also keep an eye on their cats.”

He said anyone who witnesses violence against an animal in progress should call 911. Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call the sheriff’s station in Indio at (760) 863-8990.

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francisco.varaorta @latimes.com