Owner of cat found dead with '˜horrific injuries' in Portsmouth alleyway warns others to keep pets indoors

A DISTRAUGHT pet owner is urging others to keep their animals indoors at night after her cat was found mutilated in an alleyway.
ChesterChester
Chester

Jane Benham said she is still in shock after her cat Chester was found dead by a dog walker by her home.

The 54-year-old, who lives in Milton, Portsmouth, said she does not know what killed him but said injuries looked like a person had caused them.

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Seven-year-old Chester was not missing when his body was found and Jane said it was quite common for him to go out night.

ChesterChester
Chester

But she said her other cat Ruby, Chester's sister, will now be kept indoors after dark.

'˜I got a phone call from Portsmouth Cats Lost and Found on Saturday to say Chester had been found by a dog walker,' Jane said.

'˜His injuries were so horrific that the man who found him had called the police because he thought Chester had been mutilated.

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'˜He was taken to a vets in Farlington and when I arrived, they warned me not to look at him because of his injuries. But I just wanted to see him again.

'˜It was awful, it was like he had been ripped apart.'

Jane said the vets were unsure what caused Chester's injuries but that it was not a fox.

They said the likely cause was a dog but Jane is not ruling out that a person might have killed her beloved pet.

Jane added: '˜I really don't know what happened to him. They said it was unlikely that a fox would cause that extent of injuries. 

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'˜So either someone is letting their aggressive dog attack cats or a human did it.'

Chester was found in an alleyway off Edmund Road. As previously reported in The News, a different cat was found dead in the grounds of St James's Hospital, in Milton, last month with injuries similar to that caused by the notorious M25 cat killer.

Jane said Chester's death happened so soon after that incident and in a similar area of the city that she now wants other owners to keep their pets safe.

'˜I am telling this story so other cat owners are aware of what's happening,' she said.

'˜Please keep your pets indoors at night. I am still in shock about what's happened to Chester and I would hate for anyone else to go through something like this.'