as posted on PerthNow
A THIEF is on the prowl in Gosnells snatching at least eight cats from back yards, a resident claims.
Would-be pet detective Neill Barry, 32, is leading the investigation into the missing moggies.
Mr Barry is pining for his 10-year-old cat Zeus, who was snatched three weeks ago from his home in Eastwood Way.
Suspicions that a ``catnapper'' was at large arose when his next-door neighbour _ whose two pets, Felix and Molly, also disappeared _ heard a male voice calling ``Puss, puss, puss'' at 2.15 one morning.
"I was woken by the dog barking,'' Nigel Haggarty said. ``If I'd had a decent torch, I would have been able to see the culprit.''
Mr Barry said all eight cats were stolen at night.
"The number of cats and the way they are being stolen is pretty disturbing,'' he said.
He has placed posters at Woolworths on Albany Highway and at the Gosnells railway markets seeking information on other cats that have disappeared from Eastwood Way and neighbouring area.
"At first, I thought the cats may have been taken by a fox, or the victim of bait, but after our neighbour heard somebody calling their cat we thought it may be something more sinister,'' Mr Barry said.
RSPCA spokeswoman Marianne Harrison said: ``There's always the possibility that someone in the community is upset about cats roaming around at night, but it could be a number of other things.''
A spokesman for Gosnells Council said it was hard to reunite cats with their owners because unlike dogs, cats did not have to be registered.
But cat havens were ``bursting at the seams''.
"If there was a cat Act we would want it to include a curfew restriction so that cats need to be inside between dusk and dawn,'' Ms Harrison said.
as posted on PerthNow
