A guy in an East Austin neighborhood wants a fuller investigation because he says that two days in a row, he found two dead cats in his front yard.
Todd Williams says that wild cats are common in his Colony Park neighborhood. He says that nine to ten cats come to his yard every morning to eat, hang out, and walk around.
Williams is happy to have them over because he loves animals and has his cat. He says it’s the right thing to do for them.
“It was clear that many of them were skinny and hadn’t eaten, and you just want to make sure they eat,” Williams said. “They wouldn’t bother anyone as they walked around the neighborhood.”
Williams has slowly stopped seeing the strays that used to come to his yard every morning for the past few months.
He found one dead in his yard two days ago.
“Okay, maybe a car hit it or something,” they said. “It does happen, right?” Williams asked. “Then the next day, the second one showed up after being forced into a box on purpose and having been there for a while.”
Williams found two dead cats in his yard within a few days of each other. He said it looked like both cats were between six months and a year old and might have come from the same litter.
“That’s scary,” Williams said. “My partner walked in, speechless and shocked. We both love animals, after all.”
Williams says that he called 311 but that the police could only pick up the bodies.
Williams talked to people in a nearby neighborhood who also said they had seen dead cats in their area. It can’t go on, he says, even though he doesn’t know if someone is just dropping off cats.
“You don’t want to hurt them on purpose.” Williams said, “It’s just not that good.”
Williams says he put up cameras to see if it happens again and hopefully catch the person who did it.
The APD’s animal cruelty unit told KVUE that if you think someone is hurting an animal, you should call 911 right away so that officers can come out and gather proof.
The four cops who work in the APD’s animal cruelty unit say they handle 800 cases of animal cruelty each year.
