Am not taking a stance on this but I did read this last month so wasn’t surprised at the OP news story:
It is interesting to read about fox behaviour in this regard.
From the ES report:
“In a statement the Met said: “Following a thorough examination of the available evidence, officers working alongside experts have concluded that hundreds of reported cat mutilations in Croydon and elsewhere were not carried out by a human and are likely to be the result of predation or scavenging by wildlife.””
The Met Police seem firm in their statement that these incidents were “not carried out by a human”.
Backed up by a lot of conclusive evidence.
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It’s time to go after the Croydon Bird Killer. Oh wait that’s just all the cats decimating the bird population 
Inspired by SE23Nic’s poll: who or what do you believe is most responsible for the 500 cat deaths?
-
Foxes -
Cars -
Human serial killer
0 voters
Police have released a new e-fit of a suspect:
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NewsShopper’s roundup of today’s bombshell:
I wonder if a small number of killings WERE by a person, but the publicity led to many fox-related incidents being rolled up in the same data set. I assume the researchers also took into account that foxes are arch-scavengers and in many cases would have picked the bodies of cats already dead or injuried due to being hit by a car.
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Sounds like a very plausible suggestion.
If I read it correctly it suggested they were basically all roadkill then scavenged by the foxes…
I think @RachaelDunlop has a point - this could be a mixture of a human killer, human copycat killers and fox scavenging of roadkill. And perhaps some fox “killing frenzies” (based on their tendency to remove heads but not actually eat the prey):
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I don’t think that foxes eat chickens is wildly a surprise.
What was a surprise is how according to the article banning hunting has increased the urban fox population. I miss the days of the hunt Tally-hoing down Dartmouth Road…
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There appears to be a lot of public commentary concentrating on cat bits hung in plastic bags on their owners door, and people saying that foxes can’t do that therefore it must be a person. I don’t recall reading about such a case until now (and as hearsay), but I wasn’t and remain not an avid reader of cat mutilation stories.
It seems most likely to me that a cat was hit by a car and the remains returned to the owner by a well meaning member of the public in a bag.
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Cats hit by cars don’t usually end up in several pieces, though.
No, not usually, but there were over 500 cases investigated and those that were investigated were done so because they were suspicious in some way.
Article about the controversy of the case in Wired:
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What probably happened was that top brass at Scotland Yard and participating forces collectively agreed behind closed doors that there probably has been some deliberate human involvement but they’ll shelve it until a similar M.O. appears on their radar. And do what I’d do: blame it on foxes.
Boudicca Rising and the South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (Snarl) group continue their campaign as reported in the DM.
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Cats are getting their revenge (or at least I assume that’s who’ll get the blame)
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