Mystery of Japan’s ‘cat island’ deaths may be solved after elderly man accused of poisoning felines

Claws were out on Umashima island in northern Kyushu after its cat population fell from 100 to about 30, and reports of poisoned food emerged

Animal rights groups and the police were investigating, until an elderly man was seen putting out food to exterminate crows

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Cats on Umashima Island, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka. The island became a popular tourist destination for its large number of cats. But the numbers fell dramatically in recent years as many were poisoned. Photo: Facebook

Published: 5:49pm, 11 Jun 2020Updated: 6:16pm, 11 Jun 2020

Police in southern Japan are building a case against an elderly man suspected of decimating the feline residents of “cat island” with poison.

Umashima island, about 10km off the port of Kokura, in northern Kyushu, became well known for being home to 30 humans and about 100 cats, nearly all strays.

The island, along with nearby Aoshima, which also has a high population of cats, is something of a tourist destination and is especially popular with Instagramers and other social media users.

The first reports that cats were dying of an unknown cause came in September 2017, and their numbers fell to less than 30 in the next two years.

The Fukuoka-based non-profit organisation Stopping Cruelty to Animals Testament (SCAT) opened an investigation after about 40 cats were found dead, and received numerous reports of fish with a strange blue tint being left in places around the island.

Cats that ate the food soon collapsed and foamed at the mouth before dying, the group found.

It shared its report with a second anti-animal cruelty group, Taisetsuna Nekotachi, which then passed it on to police in October last year.