MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A disturbing discovery was made Thursday on Miami Beach when a stray kitten was spotted dead near a sign that warned people about feeding cats on a property.
[WARNING, the video at the top of this page includes disturbing images.]
“The closer I got the cat still was lying there and I thought, ‘I hope he’s asleep,’” said Blakey Ross, who posted about the cat online.
Detectives were out questioning people about the situation Thursday afternoon.
These cats are well known to residents of Miami Beach, which has a significant stray population. Registered feeders, like Catherine Busacco, go out every day to keep an eye on them.
“That’s part of the de-population process that I’m involved in by feeding them and keeping track of them and making sure they’re healthy, not diseased,” she said.
Busacco covers the area where that kitten was found on Euclid Avenue, just north of 15th Street. She says she recognized the cat immediately.
“We had five kittens, and I was able to get three of them rescued, and this morning I found one in the street passed away,” she said.
The cat had no obvious signs of injuries, so Busacco picked it up and put it down next to where she would normally feed that colony.
That’s when she noticed the sign, ripped it off, and covered the kitten with it, before calling the number for the building where it was posted.
Busacco says the man who answered came outside and started getting belligerent, screaming at her and threatening to call the police, so she made sure the final kitten ate and then left.
A little while later, Ross, who lives nearby, spotted the kitten, snapped a picture, and posted it on Facebook.
“We’re cat lovers, and to especially see a kitten, so cute, just lying there and it was so seemingly malicious the way it was done,” she said.
Animal advocates are concerned it may have been poisoned. Miami Beach police took the kitten, and a necropsy will have to be done to determine exactly how it died.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.