The RSPCA and local officials are investigating the "very concerning" situation at the abandoned pond, which has rattled a small English community
NEED TO KNOW
- Residents in Coventry, England, are demanding answers after 16 mutilated cats were found in an abandoned garden pond
- The RSPCA is investigating but suggested the deaths may have been accidental, a claim some locals strongly dispute
- A GoFundMe raised a little over $3,000 for post-mortems, but freezing the remains may prevent determining how the cats died
A community in Coventry, England, is demanding answers after the remains of 16 cats were discovered in a six-foot-deep abandoned garden pond.
According to a BBC report published Saturday, June 6, the grim discovery was made on May 17 in Howcotte Grove. Three children who were playing hide-and-seek spotted a cat floating on the surface of the water in the garden of an unoccupied semi-detached home. One of the children ran to alert their parent, who directed them to Paula Singleton, a neighbor known locally as "the cat lady," who had been searching for two of her own missing pets for weeks.
"He came running over to tell me then and he took me down there," Singleton told the outlet at the time. "I sort of had like a sinking gut, and I thought, 'Oh, not my little Ginger.'"
What Singleton found when she arrived, armed with a fishing net and spending hours trawling the pond, has been described as a "garden of horrors."
Credit: GoogleMaps
Among the 16 cats found in the roughly 20-by-10-foot, six-foot-deep water tank were skulls and partial remains. Two of the bodies belonged to Singleton: 1-year-old Gingernut and 4-year-old Clyde. One of her cats had its jaw missing and another was found on the grass with no legs, head or tail. Some of the images Singleton photographed were too graphic to publish, per BBC News.
Also found in the water were disposable blue surgical gloves, along with a full box of them on a table nearby in the garden.
The RSPCA, which is leading the inquiry alongside West Midlands Police, said it was "very concerned" and continuing to investigate. While keeping an "open mind," the charity has largely suggested the deaths were accidental, and that the cats fell into the steep-walled concrete pond and were unable to climb out.
"At this stage we have no evidence or information from the public that this was deliberate," the RSPCA said in a statement to BBC News. "It is possible it may have been a tragic accident with the cats falling into the water and unable to escape, which were not discovered as the house was empty."
Singleton flatly rejects that explanation, stating its "crazy" to assume the felines simply fell in. "Those cats don't pick a pond that big to have a drink out of. They'd rather a puddle," she added.
She noted that Clyde had walked the same path near the property for three years without incident. Izzy Hocking of Cats Protection told BBC News that cats are "typically cautious around water and so are unlikely to fall in," though she acknowledged that steep or slippery edges with no accessible exit points can increase the risk of drowning, especially for kittens or older and unwell cats.
Three cats recovered intact from the pond are currently undergoing post-mortem examinations, partially funded by a GoFundMe that raised approximately $3,000. However, Singleton was later told that because the remains had been frozen rather than refrigerated after recovery, it may not be possible to determine how the cats died.
"They said they will not be able to tell if they went in the pond alive or dead now," she explained. "I'm truly disappointed. I'm angry."
The RSPCA said expert vets found no evidence of skeletal trauma indicating a physical attack, adding that injuries to the paws and jaw were consistent with attempts to climb out of the steep concrete walls. The charity said it did not arrange post-mortems, as it felt the examinations would not provide evidence either way, but added that if new evidence emerged indicating deliberate harm, it would act.
The house, which has a small "for sale" sign outside and is listed at £160,000 (a little over $213,500), has since had boards placed over the open water.
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