A 29-year-old man is expected to appear in the Wynberg Magistrates Court, in connection with the killing of several cats in the Ottery area. The arrest was made on Sunday at the suspect’s residence in the Freedom Park informal settlement.

According to Western Cape police spokesperson Frederick Van Wyk, the arrest follows a tip-off on the suspect.

“The arrest came after a whistle-blower reported that the suspect is killing cats and [putting] them in the municipal dust bin,” said Van Wyk.

The suspect has been charged with animal cruelty in terms of the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962.

The spokesperson for the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, Belinda Abraham, confirmed and condemned the incident. She noted that the SPCA was alerted, after the owner of a cat opened a case at the Lansdowne Police Station.

“It is alleged that more than 5 cats have been killed over a few months, but we only know about the 1 incident,” Abraham said.

The SPCA confirmed that in the known incident, a cat had been suffocated using a plastic bag.

“A postmortem will be conducted and we await further results so that we can determine if the cat was also beaten as there was a lot of blood on the scene,” she added.

According to Abraham, the complainant identified the suspect, who was then arrested.

She said the SPCA will oppose bail.

“There is no valid reason for any animal to be killed in a barbaric manner. There are humane ways to solve issues with animals that are perceived to be problematic,” Abraham said.