U.S. Experts Say Coyotes, Not Satanists, Killed 67 Cats

A federal wildlife official and an Agriculture Department investigator agreed Wednesday that the deaths of 67 cats in the last two months in the county were caused by coyotes.

All of the evidence found “was consistent with coyote killings,” said Gary Simmons, assistant director of the Department of Agriculture’s Animal Damage Control program in Sacramento.

“Evidence varies from situation to situation in predator killings, but our representative (who investigated the killings) found nothing that was inconsistent with what a coyote or any other animal would do.”

‘Monitor the Killings’

Dr. Nila Kelly, county veterinarian, said workers within the next few weeks will begin to “survey the areas where the problems have occurred. We’re going to try to monitor the killings by going out at night and videotaping the animal activities in the area. Right now we just don’t have evidence that indicates human involvement.”

The agencies’ findings came after speculation that Satanists had tortured and mutilated the cats.

The killings reportedly occurred from May 5 to Aug. 2 in cities throughout the county. Thirty-six of the killings occurred in Tustin.

But Janet Hampson, a cat lover who stores the frozen bodies of cats that die under suspicious circumstances in her home freezer through an agreement with county Animal Control, still contends that Satan worshipers are killing the cats.

Some Beheaded, Cut in Half

The Department of Agriculture investigator “said that nothing he saw was inconsistent with what a coyote would do, but he also said that he was not familiar with Satanic worshipers or how they operated,” she said.

Hampson said some of the animals have been beheaded or cut in half.

“Several veterinarians have examined each of the animals and concluded that humans are involved,” she said, “and we feel they are in much better positions to make such a decision” than the federal government.

Veterinarian James Connoyer of Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. in Santa Ana viewed 25 of the cats and said he also found it hard to believe that a predator had killed them.

“After viewing the remains, I certainly don’t feel human involvement can be ruled out in any way, particularly with the lack of external wounds that usually accompany an animal’s attacks,” said Connoyer, who has been a veterinarian for 12 years.

External Wounds

But Craig Knight, the Agriculture Department specialist who investigated the killings, said coyotes do not always leave external wounds.

“What most people don’t understand,” he said, “is that many times when these animals are killed by predators, they’re shaken violently, meaning that many of their injuries are internal as opposed to external.”

Knight spent most of Tuesday afternoon viewing more than 10 of the cat bodies in the back yard of Hampson’s North Tustin home.