A British resident on the Costa del Sol has issued a warning to cat owners after three kittens were brutally killed and ‘left on display as a message’.
Henrietta Ross, 36, told the Spanish Eye how the strays were found dead with their heads ‘bashed in from the back’ near Aloha Hills Club in Marbella this week.
The bodies were fully intact and were found hugging each other, raising suspicions.
‘It’s not possible for all three to have been run over only on their heads,’ Henrietta explained.
‘When a cat is run over, typically their insides spill out, but their bodies were all intact, and they were found hugging each other, so they must have been placed there like that.’
Adding insult to injury, the kittens were dumped next to an approved cat colony that has been repeatedly threatened and attacked over the past year – in what Henrietta believes is a sinister message.
‘I was hysterical when I heard the news,’ Henrietta said, ‘I don’t know how people can be so cruel. The mother of the kittens was meowing and crying all night, obviously she couldn’t find her babies, it was absolutely heartbreaking.’
The alleged attack follows a campaign of abuse suffered by Henrietta and other volunteers who help control and look after the local stray population.
They manage a cat colony near to the Aloha Hills Club urbanisation, leaving food out and capturing and spaying cats in the hope of finding them homes.
‘We are simply trying to help,’ she explained, ‘we get them spayed and try to home as many as possible, I got 25 cats homed last year, I’m really proud of the work we do.’
But Henrietta, who is four months pregnant, claimed a squatter in the complex has repeatedly threatened to harm the cats and allegedly admitted to running one over on purpose last year.
‘He says vile things to us, making threats,’ she said, ‘last year a kitten was run over near the complex and he later admitted to it saying we had forced him to do it or some nonsense.’
Henrietta said the stretch of road where they found the kittens has no cameras.
‘I think the person who did this knows that,’ she said.
‘We have seen people speeding up on that stretch in a bid to run the cats over.
‘There was recently a fire right by the colony which some people fear may have been set deliberately to drive out the animals.’
The expectant mother said she was also berated by a neighbour for feeding kittens on the outskirts of the complex.
Henrietta added: ‘Spain is one of the worst places for animals, just look at the treatment of horses and donkeys, there’s such little regard for them.
‘When I told a local about the kittens being killed he told me ‘this is normal’.
‘He said people throw kittens in bags with rocks in and dump them in a lake, and when he and his friends go swimming it’s not uncommon to see bags with dead kittens in.’
Henrietta, who has three cats herself, says she is simply too scared to let them go outside.
She warned fellow cat owners on the coast: ‘Keep your cats inside unless all your neighbours are friendly to animals or you are sure it is safe. You just need to be really aware.
‘I am moving and I will also be putting air tags on my cats and building them an outdoor area where they can roam safely.
‘And for anyone involved in cat colonies, make sure you hide the bowls of food so they are not in plain sight, or they may become a target.
‘Unfortunately, many people in Spain just see cats and all animals as pests that need to be eradicated.’
Henrietta said she does not have enough evidence to take the killing of the kittens to the police.
