Mutilated cat body parts have been discovered around Saitama City in Japan, forcing local officials and elementary schools to increase security measures around the area to protect the children.
Vice reports that police and parents have started taking turns in patrols in the region after body pieces of dismembered cats were discovered half buried in soil, on a park bench, and some hanging from playground railings.
Cats crowd around as an island resident feeds them on September 27, 2018 in Aoshima, Japan.
Mysterious Mutilated Cat Carcasses in Japan
The police in Saitama City in greater Tokyo were notified on Sunday morning, February 26, of a half-buried cat with missing paws and head. The cat's intestines were discovered hours later on a neighboring road. Before that incident, cops also discovered a severed cat jaw strung with twine and dangling from the playground bars in a schoolyard.
Concerned that the killer of the cats may possibly endanger young children, adjacent elementary schools and municipal officials have enhanced monitoring in areas around where the bodies were discovered. They've also been escorting kids home and forcing them to walk in groups.
Kazuhiko Noguchi, resident relations manager at the Minami police district, told VICE Global News that it has been a long time since he has heard of a brutal cat murder like this one in their prefecture. He noted that the enhanced patrols helped to reassure the area.
Residents and animal rights activists in Saitama prefecture were once again shocked by what is happening. Just six years ago, a man notoriously killed and tortured more than a dozen cats and uploaded recordings of it online, which outraged people the brutal cat deaths. The guy was caught and sentenced to a 22-month jail term.
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Similar Incident?
Takuya Anzai, an official with the Saitama educational board who has coordinated patrol operations, said some parents were especially anxious because of a notorious instance of child killings in Kobe prefecture in 1997 carried out by a 14-year-old kid.
Before killing his victims, aged 10 and 11, the young attacker mutilated their bodies. Anzai told VICE Global News that it was a sad period for the country, adding that the school board has asked students to notify their professors if they observe anything unusual.
The two cat killings are being investigated by police as possible breaches of Japan's animal protection law. Anyone who kills or injures an animal is punished by up to five years in jail or a fine of up to 5 million yen ($36,600).
But aside from Japan, there was also a similar incident in Lower Mainland in British Columbia over a decade ago. BC SPCA confirmed that forensic examinations on mutilated cats found in the area were caused by predators.
Officials said that necropsies conducted by forensic veterinarian Dr. Melinda Merck on the remains of mutilated cats and other animals in Lower Mainland showed that they were victims of predator attack, debunking initial findings by pathologists that point to human involvement.
For now, the recent case of mutilated cat body parts is not yet solved. Authorities have yet to release confirmation of whether it is due to predators or something else.
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