Cat killer: Peta puts up £3,500 reward to catch culprit who hanged a cat on Cheltenham primary school fence

A reward of £3,500 has been put up to catch whoever hanged a cat on a fence outside a primary school and nursery.

Peta - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - has put up the cash to try to bring to justice the culprit or culprits, who are believed to hanged the cat while she was still alive.

The cat, a female with white fur, was found dead on Friday, 13 November by staff at Gardners Lane Primary School in Cheltenham, which has an on-site nursery. She had a belt round her neck, and scratch marks and embedded teeth found in the fence suggest that she was alive when she was attacked and that she struggled desperately to escape her killers.

The RSPCA believe that the crime was committed between the evening of 10 November and the morning of 13 November and is urging anyone with first-hand information about the killing to call its appeals line on 0300 123 8018.

“It’s imperative that any community faced with cruel and callous acts such as this take measures to find the culprit and bring them to justice,” says Peta vice president Elisa Allen. “Animal abusers are a danger to everyone: they take their issues out on whomever is available to them – humans or other animals – and must be caught before they act again.”

Peta says history shows that past incidents involving cruelty to animals regularly appear in the records of serial rapists and murderers. It points to young killers Mary Bell, Robert Thompson, and Jon Venables; murderers Ian Huntley, Thomas Hamilton, who committed the Dunblane massacre, and Raoul Moat; and serial killers Fred West, Dennis Nilsen, and Ian Brady who all started out by deliberately harming animals.

Peta is taking emergency humane education materials to the primary school and nursery to help prevent future instances of violence. These resources are designed to help children of all ages recognise the importance of having compassion and empathy for all living, feeling beings.

 For more information about helping animals, see peta.org.uk