MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Miami Beach police are investigating an extreme case of animal cruelty after three cats turned up dead — with their heads apparently bashed into concrete — in South Beach.
The cats were found over a two-week span.
Local 10 News spoke with Estela Aguirre, a longtime volunteer with SoBe Cats, which helps trap, sterilize and care for the city’s feral cat population.
“It’s a pleasure to give them food and take care of them,” Aguirre said.
She said those three cats were ones the group had been caring for.
“I think that somebody is smashing their head against the concrete, like a bludgeoning with an object, because they’re bleeding from the mouth and ear,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre said in her nearly three decades volunteering, she and the group have garnered a number of enemies.
Another volunteer, who asked to be identified only by her first name of Cassandra, said she thinks the cats were killed on purpose.
“I think somebody intentionally sought them out, was upset about them living in the area and killed them,” she said. “Currently, there is somebody that is violent and aggressive, and willing to harm innocent animals.”
SoBe Cats has filed a police report and put up signs in the area warning any perpetrators that they could face animal abuse charges.
Aguirre said she wants residents to know that SoBe Cats is trying, through its sterilization efforts, to control, rather than expand, the feral cat population.
Volunteers discovered the last cat on Dec. 20.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.