NORTH CAROLINA -- Investigators in Dare County are trying to find out what happened to three cats found dead in a dumpster. The animals appeared to have been shot, officials said.
“We would never have suspected in a million years that something like this would happen,” said Debbie Martin, with Friends of Felines – Cape Hatteras Island.
For the past 15 years, Martin has cared for more than a dozen spayed and neutered feral cats on the realty property facility where she is a manager, she said. She feeds them at night and a co-worker takes over in the morning. He could not find them Wednesday, until he checked the dumpster, Martin said.
“He had some very bad news for me, that he had found three bodies in the dumpster back behind me, and all the cats are gone. We don’t know what has happened to them.”
The Dare County Sheriff’s Office said they got the call Wednesday morning and started looking for clues. It appears someone shot the cats, but it’s not clear what weapon was used, investigators said.
“I think it’s very sad that there’s someone out there that’s harming animals. This is Hatteras Island. It’s a national seashore, and we protect our animals here,” Martin said.
The sheriff’s office has not released any information about suspects, but is investigating the deaths as felony animal cruelty.
Meanwhile, more than $1,000 has been set aside for a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction through a Yadkin Bank account in Avon under the name of “Cat Lovers of Hatteras Island,” Martin said.
The Outer Banks SPCA said the cats were sent to the state laboratory in Raleigh to determine how they died. Citizens are allowed to trap feral cats and bring them to their facility, but are not allowed to harm them, Outer Banks SPCA director John Graves said.
If you know something about the case, call the Dare County Sheriff’s Office at 252-475-5980.
(WAVY - Dec 31, 2015)
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