Are Coyotes or Demented People Responsible for Killing of Cats?

The Rev. Lloyd Powers spied the tiny figure last week lying atop a plastic bag on the lawn of his Encinitas church--what appeared to be the beheaded body of a cat.

Soon, San Diego County Sheriff’s Detective Tom Snowden learned of the grisly find--the newest wrinkle in a mystery with a sick Halloween twist that has kept the North County coastal community guessing for at least a year:

How are the cats dying?

Since February, the bodies of at least half a dozen dismembered cats have been found on lawns and front yards throughout Encinitas--including, several in a suburban development known as Village Park.

One was beheaded. Others seemed to have been cut in half and eviscerated.

Authorities say the killings appear to be the work of predatory wild animals--such as coyotes or bobcats--that inhabit fields and canyons across North County. Hungry animals, they say, that have recently come calling on household pets as a tasty morsel off the suburban smorgasbord.

But several area residents have suggested a darker motive for the mutilations. The deaths, they believe, are the work of a sick mind or possibly, a religious cult--a theory investigators say has no merit.

“People have suggested that a person, humanwise, is doing this as part of a cult or some sporadic random wacko mind,” Snowden said. “The people suggesting that, I think, are out in the wind.”

Although he acknowledged that the cats appeared at first to have been cut with a knife, autopsies on several have suggested that the animals were killed by other carnivores.

“The reason there is seldom any blood is because these animals eat and lick that stuff,” Snowden said, “not because it’s being used as any part of some Satanic ritual.”

This week, Snowden said, an autopsy by a county veterinarian determined that the animal carcass found near St. Mark Lutheran Church was actually that of a rabbit--not a cat.

Powers said he doesn’t believe his church was a target.

“I would prefer to believe animals are responsible for this,” he said. “In any event, I think it’s an isolated incident.”

But several pet owners don’t buy the predator story, saying they have heard stories of brutality to animals, including people who have glued cats’ eyes shut.

Dani Pohn, supervisor of the adoption unit at the Woodward Animal Clinic, said many cats prowl the canyons in her neighborhood, and none has ever been devoured.

“I can imagine people doing that, setting cats on fire and all of that--it happens,” she said. “There’s some very sick people out here. And this crime is right up there with child abuse. It’s actually worse because you’re mutilating someone’s pet.”

Ruth Jones, a spokesman for Friends of Cats, an animal-lovers group based in El Cajon, said the group has heard reports of such cruelty to animals throughout the county.

“In fact, during the month of October, we don’t even adopt out black cats as a way to guard against things like this,” she said. “I think this kind of thing starts out as a cruel streak in little boys with no conscience and is retained in some adults who just don’t outgrow it.

“Or these people who hurt animals for some cult ritual. It’s scary. And it’s sick.”

Snowden said he didn’t immediately dismiss the human angle.

“People have been known to mutilate cats, and I didn’t take that possibility lightly,” he said. “And I looked for clues but didn’t find any--no pentagon, no wax figures or candles or altar, nothing to suggest some religious experience. Nothing. I have absolutely zilch to substantiate that.”

He said he has seen coyotes stalk and come close to capturing several alley cats that have been unofficially adopted by the Sheriff’s Department substation off Encinitas Boulevard.

Another officer added: “Hey, a lot of people just don’t like cats. In the Imperial Valley, it’s not uncommon to shoot cats in the fields. People take .22s out there and plink at them. And I’ve been one of them.

“It’s just that a lot of people see animals all in pieces and get panicky. We’ve looked at it and determined it to be the work of other animals, so the whole thing is getting old now.”