Help! 250 Cats Have Disappeared!

Please help us. Since December of this past year, over 250 cats have disappeared from families living in Antioch, CA. Some families, such as ours, have had the horrible experience of losing more than one cat. The cats are not showing up at our local animal shelters and they are not showing up on the Highway DOA lists. They are just disappearing into thin air.
I have been investigating this crisis for the past several months. I have created a data base of all of the missing cat information along with plotting each disappearance on a map of our city.
I have gave a speech before City Council requesting their help in forcing our local law enforcement to open an investigation, the newspapers have run several front page stories, and I have contacted many different and very highly respected professionals and all have stated that in their professional opinion what is happening here is definitely human caused.
After months and months of promises from City Council and our Police Department, today I received their decision. Their decision was based on an "old wives tale" that "cats will just decided to wander off on their own accord, never to return" We all know that this absolutely abserd. Cats hate change. It is also well documented that the psychological history of feline behavior supports the exact opposite of this fable or myth. The normal roaming range for cats is 2-3 houses on either side of their own, period. They do not just wake up one day and decide to wander off on a new adventure, especially 250 cats thinking this way?
I have attached a file with the response I have received from our City Council. Please!! We are asking for everyone's help. Our City Council will not listen to us, but perhaps they will listen to all of you, we need hundreds of cats lover from around the country and around the world to contact our city council members and inform them that they are wrong to believe this idiotic old wives tale. Tell them that they have a moral and legal obligation to investigate, to find out what is happening to these innocent members of our community, our beloved cats.
Please call the Antioch City Hall or the Antioch Police Headquarters and let them know what you think about their response and let them know that the word will spread regarding their attitude towards family pets. Cats are continuing to disappear on a daily basis and we need an army to fight our City Hall.

Jewelcat

first of all, i'm going to move this to the S.O.S. Forum where i think
it will get more replies/attention.

secondly, let me say, i am sitting here dumbfounded, i have never heard
of such a happenance. i cannot believe the way your City Council is
treating this sad affair! rest assured i will read through your attachment, and send them a piece of my mind.

it is absurd.

do you have any theories as to what is going on?
i have been racking my mind, and i cant think what the reason behind this could be.

know that you came to the right place, i'm sure everyone will do what they can to help you.

kate

it appears i cant move it right now, i'm not sure why not. hopefully another
Moderator will see this soon enough and move it to S.O.S. for you.

Thank you all very much. Whatever you can do to help will be appreciated.

This really boils my blood. I'm almost certain your town is being targeted by a person or persons who steal animals to be sold to be used as lab test subjects. I would urge you and the other people who are fighting for the little ones to investigate this possibility, since your police department isn't willing to do its own job. Maybe they'll get off their butts if you give them evidence.

What is the E-mail address for these jokers? I promise to be more constructive and diplomatic when I communicate with them than I am being here as I vent.

Thank you for supporting our efforts. It is very difficult to investigate crimes such as these without the aide of law enforcement. I could certainly not risk my life or the life of others by asking them to conducting night time surveillance activity or door to door interviewing of neighborhoods, etc.
The laws of California are very clear plus I have a letter from the State Attorney General's office which states that our local law enforcement agency is responsible for upholding and/or enforcing these laws and they must also investigate any possible violations of our state's animal welfare and protection regulations and codes.
But we all know this don't we, it is just that our city government doesn't realize that issues concerning our family pet take a much higher priority to most of the citizens in our community than any old "street lighting" bill.
They have no compassion for the members of the community they serve and that is the key word there "serve". It is their job to protect and serve the members of their community, which includes the innocent, our children and our pets.
We would appreciate any thing you can do to help, the more people that call or write to our City Hall and our Police Department, the better. I would love to just see their switch board just light up and stay lit for a period of several days.

The following are the email addresses of our City Council and our Mayor. There is one council member that is showing support for our cause but one is not a majority , so I am sure his efforts have not been very successful. This council member is Jim Davis, but to be diplomatic, all of the members of City Council should receive a copy of any communication being sent by supporters of our cause.

Thank you again and please spread the word for others to call or write.

Council Member Arne Simonsen
[email protected]

Brian Kalinowski, Mayor Pro Tem
[email protected]

Honorable Donald P. Freitas, Mayor
[email protected]

Council Member Jim Conley
[email protected]

Council Member Jim Davis
[email protected]

Antioch Police Department
300 "L" Street
Antioch, CA 94509
(925) 778-2441
Investigations Division
(925) 779-6926

Antioch City Hall
3rd & "H" Street
Antioch, CA 94509
(925) 779-7000

WHAT AN OUTRAGE!!!!

I am gripped by the power of justice to pursue this as much as I can here in Florida! How can these so-called leaders say such "in layman's terms...Lazy Ass" thing. It's just that they don't want to waste their money??? Or, are they gaining upon this in some way??? I often wonder about the city coucils and cash given under the table for sick work or drug money. We've had that here in Florida, so nothing surprises me. It's difficult to say what may have happened, but I'm sure it's the works of diseased minds like James Lacy and Kraklio, however, on a much larger scale. One question also comes to mind on a 180 degree out ....are you from a rurul area..are there coyotes, wolves or bobcats around? I'm sure you've gone over this anyway, Please if there is more that I can help you with...let me know!

Love &

Yes, Catarina, we have coyotes, but we are not in a rural area. Most of the disappearances could not have been the result of coyotes just by the details surrounding each of the disappearances. Believe me, I know that not all 260 (the total just went up)cats are going to attributed to the same cause and granted it is possible that a few did fall victim to coyotes, autos, and old age.
But I have talked with a wildlife management specialist for the state of California and it was his opinion that just by the shear numbers involved here, the cause almost has to be human related.
Thank you for supporting our cause, and we hope that you will contact everyone you know, so that they can also send a message to our city leaders.

This is so disturbing. I'll do whatever you ask!
Thanks for the info and I'm terribly sorry this has happened to you and your town!

Love &

I am VERY sorry to hear about your loss, and the families in Antioch, CA.

Don't yell at me for this question, but... Were any of the felines taken from inside homes or enclosures (i.e. cat fences)? Or were they free roaming?

Have people been informed to keep their pets locked inside their homes?

Something that might help your fight, is that there could be some kind of cult catnapping and using them for sacrifice. This could also endanger people as some cults have started out with animals and moved to humans. Some one definitly has to investigate this!!!

Does any one know any of the groups could help push for an investigation? (i.e. animal or pet welfare groups?)

Keep us posted!

Heather V. Havel

Hi Heather,

Thanks for your support. Regarding your question about warning the citizens of Antioch, the local newspaper has written 3 or 4 front pages stories about what is happening here, the last one included a huge color photo of me and one of my cats, Mrs. Clown. Back when all of this first started, towards the end of December, our story also aired on an NBC affiliate 5:00 p.m. news program on KRON. They came out to my neighborhood with a reporter and a film crew and spent the afternoon interviewing neighbors and neighborhood children, as well as myself. They aired the segment that same night during the first ten minutes of the news program with all of the other top stories of the day, you know, not at the end of show with all of the fluff stories.
But not everyone reads the local newspaper and not everyone watches channel 4 news. So, in order to get the message out to every single household in our community we need the support of our city leaders and law enforcement.
You see, they have made things so difficult for us to do anything positive and that is what gripes me more so than anything else. We even have possible suspects. I have collected eye witness testimony and evidence which suggests that these suspects could very well be attributing to the fact that these animals are not showing up at the shelters. We have hard evidence that these suspects are violating numerous state regulation and codes involving animal rights, welfare, and protections. But I don't have the authority to go on to their property and look for any of the missing cats unless we have permission and they, the suspects, have refused to allow us access on to their property to look for any of the missing cats. They won't provide us with any of their records detailing where all of their cats came from,(they are known to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 cats spread out amongst themselves). So, we are just plane stuck in the mud without the police on our side.
I can't give out too many more details as we don't want alert them that we are on to them. So, as in any investigation, quite a few of the facts have to be kept secret.
We just need some kind of legal way to gain access to their records and gain access to each of their sites where cats are being held.
It is so bizarre, I sometimes wonder if we will ever put an end to all of this.

Were horrible, I will admit. I am wondering about animal research and if there is a new facility near your area opening up? That is the only thing that makes sense. When we first moved to our home now, there was this really strange occurance. This lady who looked like she was going to church (she also looked to be in her 60's) she would stop in our driveway, get out of the car and drop down and start trying to coax a litter of feral kitties to come close! There were 7 of them, and they never went to her, and after this happened a few times, I did call the police. They came out and took a report then told us to call 911 when we saw her again. Turns out that there was a ring of elder cat nappers working the area, and selling the cats for research About 4 days later, one of my tame cats came up missing and we found her about 4 miles down the road dead. Our theory is the lady came back, and our cat who was very friendly jumped into her car, and somehow down the road got out through a window or something.

I will send emails to the addresses you have given out.Please keep us informed as to how this is going.

Here's a thought - do you know how many of the cats were females or neutered males? Whole males do have a tendency to run from home and disappear (in the endless quest for females and territory). This is where the myth about cats leaving home because they're "not loyal" comes from.

If you can show that the majority of the cats were not whole males, you can get lots of certified experts (animal behaviorists and vets) to testify that what that council person wrote is total nonsense and does not explain the situation.

I can try and put you in contact with some experts, or help to find quotes from well respected books that prove that point.

If they still stick to their stupid theory after that I think you can sue them or something, because they are definitely not doing their duty!

I may feature this on my web site if the problem is not solved yet.

If you're interested, write up the text of the article in Word or Notepad and attach it to an email along with any photos, etc.

I can't use the original article from the newspaper w/o their written permission so I will need you to write up something for me to use.

Andrea,

I sent you a personal email but found out later that my email program is not working correctly. I can send out messages but I can not retrieve any messages that have been sent to me. So, I you responded to my earlier email, I have not been able to retrieve your response.
This goes for all of you that have been so kind in trying to help us with our very sad situation, if you tried to send any emails to me, I unfortunately have not been able to view them or answer them. My email program should be fixed by Wednesday at the latest, but until then I am stuck.

Jewelcat

Something to look into: Some people from other cultures that have immigrated here think nothing of eating cats and dogs. I have heard stories of them capturing strays, getting animals from shelters, and stealing family pets. This is shocking and disgusting, but seems to be a known fact in some areas of California. There is always evidence of this but never any proof. It is something that law enforcement knows about but can't prove, so they can't really say anything.

Yes, Tamara, we have been told about most of the different scenarios that could be taking place including the one about cultural food preferences.
But our problem is, no matter what the cause may turn out to be, we need to have our law enforcement officials and our city leaders assume their mandated responsibility to investigate these disappearances. Right now anything is a possibility, but until our police dept. and our city council understand and realize that all of these 270 (the total just went up again) cats did not just "wander away", that something is truly happening to them, and that it is up to them to find out what is causing these disappearances, we will never know the truth. Cats will just continue to disappear.
Everyone must realize, that if this activity is allowed to continue on as it has been, by the end of this year it is very possible that families in our city will have lost over 600 cats. That is 600 innocent lives that may have been unnecessarily lost to the horrible purpetrator of these crimes. And why? Because our city government and our police department failed to fulfill their obligation to enforce the animal welfare and protections laws instituted by the State of California based on some "old wives tale".

Dear JewelCat,

I just emailed something that I did not quite prepare to one of your commissioners...oh well, it was in my mail waiting to be sent and I sent it without realizing it unitl I went to finish it. Here it is and I'm sorry for this early mailing to him/her....It's not that bad, it's only the truth...just not such a diplomatic way of putting things. When I think about it, I'm really not sorry, only because it may wake someone up because tough love really gets to the root of the matter: Dear Mr. Simonsen:

My name is Catarina Wyatt and I began the Martin County Animal Control Program in Stuart, Florida. When I first began that project, I had very little knowledge regarding animal behavior. However; during my tenure as Director, I was schooled in various programs and my hands on experience had enlightened me immensely. My attention was brought to this particular case due to a member of a cat club I'm affiliated with.

I would have to say that one-hundred cats is "not" the norm for cats to leave without a trace. It is my contention that these animals are being perpetrated by humans in order to use them for laboratory experiments. This is not an isolated case. Your community should be protected and as a commissioner I am more than positive this is part of your oath. If not...but to yourself.
Our pets are part of our families and if our community leaders cannot understand that; it would seem that I would have to find leaders that didn't have to debate on the obvious. Ask yourself, what would you really think if that was your pet? It goes without saying that your community is extremely concerned. It amazes me that you just turned your heads. How shameful.
....................

There would have been more, but I had lost the other ones that I had sent out to the other commissioners. I will email again with a thoughts of ways to conduct an investigation....a postitive conclusion should be ensued.
Always,

Catarina,

Your letter was eloquently stated and you were in no way being undiplomatic about the situation. You expressed your thoughts and concerns beautifully which only goes to show that you are a very loving and caring person. I don't know how to thank you enough. I mean this for everyone here at The Cat Site.
All of you have been so wonderful. For months I have been fighting this up hill battle against mentalities that are, to say the least, uninformed and uneducated. It has been such a relief to find all of you. If anything your support has given me new strength to forge on, to not give up on our fight for justice.

Thank you everyone!

Have you tried Jamie's new site...this new site will offer you a hand in letting her experienced staff write letters and help with petitions. This will be a very good site for you to access!!! http://www.nuzzled.net
Love &