Severed Head, Mutilated Bodies: How grisly cat killings have Japan on edge

The horrendous killings of cats in Japan’s Saitama city last month have raised alarm.

In early March, a teenager was arrested at a junior high school near Tokyo for stabbing a teacher. As per The Japan News, the 17-year-old has claimed he was behind the recent brutal murders of cats in Saitama, located near greater Tokyo.

The police are probing his possible role in the cat murders, Japanese media has reported.

What is the February incident and why has it pushed the Japanese city on edge? We explain.

Cat carcasses shock Japan

Early in February, the severed head and paws of a brown spotted cat were discovered along the banks of the Arakawa River in Saitama, as per CNN.

Days later, the remaining body, of what police believe was the same cat, came up on the grounds of an elementary school.

Till mid-February, two more mutilated cats, one on a park bench, and the other tied with a piece of string and hanging from the climbing frame at a junior school were found.

Cat killings trigger worries in Saitama

As the fears of the killer harming school children grew, local officials have beefed up security in the city.

According to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, schools in  Saitama have asked teachers to escort students home and make them walk in large groups.

Officials have also ramped up patrols in areas where the carcasses were found.

Speaking to VICE World News in February end, Kazuhiko Noguchi, who is in charge of resident relations at the police district of Minami, said: “It’s been a while since I’ve heard of a gruesome cat murder like this one in our prefecture”.

A woman in her 80s told NHK she felt “scared and uncomfortable” after hearing about the cat killings.

Takuya Anzai, an official who has coordinated patrol efforts on behalf of the Saitama educational board, said students have been asked to alert their teachers if they come across something unusual, VICE World News reported.

The police have initiated a probe into the killing as part of violations of Japan’s animal protection law. A Saitama police spokesperson told CNN they were looking if the several cat killings were connected.

It is a punishable offence to kill or harm an animal in Japan which attracts a maximum five-year prison sentence or a fine of up to 5 million yen ($36,600).

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Past instances

The unease and anxiety are high in Saitama which is haunted by similar incidents of brutality in the past.

Six years back, a man in Saitama killed and tortured over a dozen cats and posted the videos online. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison, noted VICE News.

The incident has also raised the ghost of the Kobe City child murders of the 1990s when a 14-year-old boy killed two children – aged 10 and 11 – and injured three others.

Before harming children, the boy had committed acts of animal cruelty by dismembering cats’ bodies.’

It doesn’t end with animal cruelty

Observers warn that animal cruelty can often lead to more severe crimes against humans.

As per Peta, Robert K Ressler, who developed profiles of serial killers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said, “Murderers … very often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids”.

Many notorious serial killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, the “Milwaukee cannibal”, started by abusing animals and later went on to commit more heinous crimes against humans.

One of the most disturbing Netflix documentaries – Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer – is about a group of internet sleuths who attempted to track down Luka Magnotta, the Montreal resident who killed and dismembered Jun Lin in 2012. Before killing Lin, Magnotta had earlier anonymously uploaded videos of him torturing and killing several cats, stirring outrage online.

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Kenji Omata, a psychology professor from Surugadai University, told NHK, “Normally, criminal acts and cruelty are hidden, but daring to show them may be a form of self-expression”.

As per CNN, Kim J McCoy, a barrister who founded the Hong Kong Animal Law and Protection Organisation, said, “There is empirical evidence to support the direct correlation between those who commit animal abuse and those that commit other more violent crimes on people”.

McCoy further stressed on the need to take action even if the violence is limited to animals.

Commenting on the February incidents, Yukiko Furuhashi, the head of a cat protection group in central Japan’s Aichi prefecture, called for improving background checks for potential pet owners.

“Animals should not be treated as though they are toys,” she told VICE World News.

“This abuser went so far as to leave the cat bodies in public spaces, where there could be security cameras – clearly this is a purely evil act,” Furuhashi added.

With inputs from agencies

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