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Cat lovers play detective to solve mysterious deaths of stray cats
For the past two weeks, around 40 members of CARE have been working to investigate the deaths of stray cats, which often roam and inhabit the Rasuna area.
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Under the shade: A stray cat relaxes in the bushes outside of a Taman Rasuna Apartment lobby on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020. A group of cat lovers have noticed the sudden disappearance of stray cats that usually populate the South Jakarta apartment complex. The group suspects there is a cat killer on the prowl and are keen to uncover this mystery. (JP/Tama Salim)
M
uska Putri, a member of a community of cat lovers at the Rasuna Epicentrum complex in South Jakarta, felt uneasy after watching a fellow member’s video clip on Aug. 5.
The footage, she said, showed a dead cat floating in Kali Cideng, a river that runs through part of the Rasuna Epicentrum complex, separating its apartment buildings from its offices.
Muska, along with members of Cat Adoption and Rescue Rasuna Epicentrum (CARE), then rushed to the scene and saw the cat carcass floating in the river right before their eyes.
The group managed to retrieve the carcass with the help of Rasuna's janitors in charge of cleaning the river, who later hauled it to the complex’s disposal facility.
Little did they know that this was just the beginning of a string of mysterious cat deaths in the neighborhood. By Friday, CARE received information from cleaning service staffers about six reports of cat carcasses in the river.
“We assume that those cats were intentionally killed by someone because our member who recorded the video said she also saw a person tossing the carcass into the river. But she failed to record that part,” Muska told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
"And now, we are trying our best to track down the perpetrator and uncover the motive behind such a horrific act.”
