Named - the Forest's mystery cat killer!

Wednesday, 21 April 2010

THE mystery animal responsible for the killing of two cats may be a mink which has been spotted on a nearby brook.
Jean and Ken Hopkins’s cats, Tibby and Smudge, were killed over the Easter Weekend. Both were found a few yards from the couple’s smallholding at Bradley Hill above Soudley, one was found headless and the other with its throat torn open.
Close neighbour, Clive Bullock, who lives further down by the Soudley Brook says a mink came across his garden in broad daylight last Tuesday.
“It was as bold as brass,” says Mr Bullock. “It came up out of the brook and shook itself off. There wasn’t any skulking away with it.”
Mr Bullock, who saw mink down near Soudley Ponds years ago, says they also found the body of a “badly chewed up” rabbit in the garden on the same day, which points to a mink kill.
•American mink first escaped from fur farms and started breeding in the wild in the 1950’s. Sized between an otter and ferret, they’re dark brown, good swimmers and climbers and have been blamed for wiping out Britain’s water vole population. They’re also known to attack and kill rabbits and waterfowl like moorhens.

Email: mark.bristow@tindlenews.co.uk

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