‘The stuff of nightmares’: Sadistic ‘cat ripper’ terrorises London pet owners

The dead cats began to appear early last year.

Their bodies would be left on a doorstep or discarded in an alley, or they would turn up in a garden, with hallmark signs of sadistic brutality: Decapitated, with their tails and ears cut off, stomachs slashed and organs removed, the tortured remains sometimes drained of blood.

For a while, people in Croydon, a large town in south London where the killings were first reported, assumed that the killer was only targeting cats.

But in recent months - as the grisly mutilations have increased in frequency and the owners began to share their horrific stories on Facebook - authorities have become convinced that a deranged individual is also preying upon foxes, birds, rabbits and puppies in multiple communities across London, according to a statement posted on Facebook by a small charity called the South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty.

Investigators believe there is a serial animal killer at work - that the deaths are the work of single individual who has been dubbed the “Croydon Cat Ripper” or “Croydon Cat Killer,” according to the Guardian.

The killings have become so frequent, and the pressure for action so great, that Scotland Yard began investigating the killings in January, according to the Independent.