NEWPORT BEACH : Police See No Satanic Link to Cat on Cross
A dead black cat found tied to a cross on the lawn of a home on Kings Place almost two weeks ago apparently was killed by being hit on the head with a blunt object, police reported Tuesday.
Sgt. Andy Gonis said the cause of death was determined during a necropsy by the Animal Control Division of the county Health Care Agency. No other injuries were found, Gonis said.
The two-foot-tall cross was found Nov. 18 by a resident of the home above West Coast Highway and Dover Drive. Police say they do not know who owned the cat and that no similar incidents have been reported in Newport Beach.
Gonis said the cat’s injury was not consistent with satanic rituals in which animals are dismembered and eviscerated. No arrests have been made.
The Newport Beach incident is the latest in a series of feline deaths and mutilations in Orange County. In Tustin, residents have become alarmed by at least 67 cat killings since last winter.
County and federal officials have investigated and say the animals were attacked by coyotes. But members of Tustin Residents Against Animal Killers insist that many of the cats were killed by people, possibly gang members or satanic worshipers.
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