Police probe 29 mysterious cat deaths in Tokyo's Ota Ward

Obviously these cats had rabies. The foaming mouth is abit of a give away.

Bravo to disillusion from Australia for saying it the way it is.

Kato_KoshiroAug. 21, 2014 - 08:17AM JST @Dadude According to the law, for hurting or killing a pet the penalties are down to 2million yen fine and down to 2 years of imprisonment. For abuse or abandonment, down to 1million yen fine and down to 1 year of imprisonment. http://www.env.go.jp/nature/dobutsu/aigo/1_law/aigo.html I don't know if this can be cumulative but anyway, this person is in serious trouble.

Theoretically in serious trouble. Few people are ever caught, let alone punished, for animal cruelty. Except when they're nicked for dismembering a neighbour and the police find a mutilated cat in their refrigerator.

Not all these things get reported in the news. There was one lady who gathered up a ton of cats. Apparently she had put them in a brown potato bag, hung it from a tree then treated the poor kittens like a Mexican pinata with a baseball bat. Laughing and smiling gleefully as swung the bat repeatedly until the bag went silent.

@Dadude According to the law, for hurting or killing a pet the penalties are down to 2million yen fine and down to 2 years of imprisonment. For abuse or abandonment, down to 1million yen fine and down to 1 year of imprisonment. http://www.env.go.jp/nature/dobutsu/aigo/1_law/aigo.html I don't know if this can be cumulative but anyway, this person is in serious trouble.

The people who do sick things to other people usually start off with small animals. So there is a good chance this sicko will move on to people. This this "person" needs to be caught and given prison and medical help. Smith san, I agree with you this time :)

Pfft! There is a huge difference between a pet cat and a feral cat. Pet cats are fed, feral cats eat whatever they can catch or scrounge>

Yeah. How dare they try to survive.

no-one should be spreading poison around anywhere in uncontrolled circumstances. Having said that there is a huge problem with local ordinance in Japan. Most people just choose to ignore the problem rather than do something about it. Stray cats are a huge problem in Tokyo and in a lot of cases it is because some local recluse has no other contact with other life forms and so they feed the cats. The cats leave their faeces around the footpaths and rip open garbage bags and spread the contents about. The local governments should be controlling the situation rather then leaving it to fed-up vigilantes.

Disillusioned: "Pfft! There is a huge difference between a pet cat and a feral cat. Pet cats are fed, feral cats eat whatever they can catch or scrounge."

First off, the article clearly states that some were pets -- not all strays. That brings me to my second point, not all strays are 'feral'. In any case you are suggesting cats be taken care of instead of going after someone who is putting POISON out in public places; poison that could easily be eaten by children, a dog being taken for a walk, or any other creature on the ground who eats something off of it. The local government SHOULD do something about wild animals if they are on the increase, but that's no excuse for not going after someone doing what this sick person is doing.

wow

A better way to deal with strays is first alert the area that cats found outside after a certain date will be spayed or neutered, this gives owners time to fix the cat themselves or learn to keep them inside where they are safe from sick people like the poisoner, then you systematically spay and neuter any cats found outside and mark them with either a visible tag or an RFID chip and release them back where they were captured in the first place, this would prevent the cats from having new kittens and by releasing them at their capture sight, this prevents new strays from coming into the area until the dominant cat dies,

Pfft! There is a huge difference between a pet cat and a feral cat. Pet cats are fed, feral cats eat whatever they can catch or scrounge. I grew up in Australia and have a very limited tolerance for feral cats (actually none). Come to think of it, I have very little tolerance for pet cats either. Where I grew up cats are strictly controlled due to the damage they do to the environment. Cats must wear bells to stop them hunting the native wildlife and people are advised to not let them out over night. People are also encouraged to have them desexed to prevent them breeding. They are not cute and cuddly companions! They are professional hunters! These feral cats also carry diseases and flees. The local councils should be doing everything they can to round up the feral cats and put them down. The resources they are wasting finding the person baiting the cats should be out towards removing the feral cats and eliminate the problem instead of going after someone who is taking care of the problem for the council.

Anybody know the penalty for animal cruelty? This person deserves a few years in prison like Michael Vick got.

For all those saying that "it's really bad that some pet cats are being killed but it's good for getting rid of all the strays" just remember that pets are members and beloved by many people and families. To many it's like losing a child.

Either way, people shouldn't be putting poison out in the streets like that. Dogs and other animals can just as easily eat the poison.

To all those praising this person, what if some kid picked up and ate the poison? Little kids will put anything in their mouths and they're much closer to the ground than parents (and hence almost impossible to reach before the kid stuffs it in their mouth).

And what if someone's pet cat goes out for a stroll and is poisoned? That could be hundreds of thousands of yen worth of damages. Is this person going to step forward and pay up? I think not.

Some very sick people around.

It's a great way to control the stray cat population.

Again... while I hate any form of violence against humans and animals, sometimes I feel like those people should get a taste of their own medicine.

It's a little odd that they admit feral cats have become a problem in the area, but are gonna prosecute whoever is baiting them. I admit that pets being killed is bad, but they should be prosecuting the local council for not doing anything about the problem of feral cats.