Woman finds cat cut in half on her lawn

By Stef Manchen

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    TULSA, Oklahoma (KJRH) — A south Tulsa homeowner found half of a cat discarded on her front lawn.

“I just I went into shock at first,” said Shelly Toth. “I walked in my house and I just started screaming and crying and pacing. I didn’t know what to do.”

Toth was working at her desk, which faces her front yard. She said she noticed a large group of birds circling the lawn so she went to check it out.

“I’ve had dead raccoon and possums so I figured it was one of those and I came out to clean it up and unfortunately was shocked to look down and find half of a cat in my yard,” said Toth. “I’m still shaking this morning. I just was so far out there with the stress yesterday when I found it, that my body’s just not back together yet.”

She’s been taking care of stray and feral cats since she moved into the neighborhood a number of years ago. While a number of her neighbors also leave out food and water, Toth said she knows there’s a few who don’t like the cats walking through their yards.

Toth said this feels like a targeted and intentional act of cruelty.

“It was obvious that it was not an animal attack,” said Toth. “There was no fur, there was no second half of the body. It was extremely clean cut as if a machete had gone through it.”

She called Tulsa police, who referred her call to Tulsa Animal Welfare.

An officer came out and cleaned the scene. Toth said the officer told her they would be opening an investigation.

“He looked very disturbed,” said Toth. “That’s when it got to me.”

And if this was a message, although shaken, Toth said she has no intentions of taking it.

“I’m going to keep taking care of the animals,” said Toth. “Hopefully this won’t keep them from coming to my property. I haven’t seen one cat since this happened.”

For the last ten years, T-Town TNR has been working to control the stray and feral cat population. Board member Kelly Hines said they’ve been successful, fixing thousands of animals.

2 News Oklahoma’s Stef Manchen asked if violence like this is common with street cats.

“A lot of people have empty threats, which we still take seriously, but you still hear people are like ‘if someone doesn’t do something about this, I’m going to do whatever,'” said Hines. “It has been very rare for us to know of someone actually harming cats.”

But that doesn’t make this any less concerning for those in the animal space.

“Not just for the sake of the cat that this happened to, but knowing that there’s a person in our community that’s capable of doing such a horrific thing, that’s definitely alarming,” saod Hines. “People who are capable of harming animals often become violent toward other people and that’s a person who’s now in our community and we don’t know who that is, that’s definitely alarming.”

Toth is hopeful by sharing this story, the person responsible will not only be caught and held responsible, but also to keep her neighbors pets safe.

“I just want people to be aware of what’s going on in their community and hold their fur babies close tonight,” said Toth.

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