A SERIES of cat disappearances in Huntingdon has sparked fears that the animals are being stolen.

A SERIES of cat disappearances in Huntingdon has sparked fears that the animals are being stolen.

Five have been reported missing from the same area of town, with other pet owners claiming up to eight cats have disappeared in the last six weeks.

The disappearances have been concentrated in the Avenue Road and Sapley Road area of Huntingdon, with one cat reported missing from Bliss Close near Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

Tania Isdale, 28, of Sapley Road, whose male tabby cat, Reece, went missing just over three weeks ago, said: “I’ve had about seven cats go missing in four years and my gut feeling is that people are taking them.

“I know of about eight or nine cats missing recently.”

Debbie Green, 21, of Avenue Road, said her 11-year-old ginger tom, Tekkie, failed to return on September 24. She said: “This is so out of character. He’s a family cat and we’re all devastated. The worst part is not knowing what’s happened to him.”

Other cats to go missing in the area within the last six weeks include Panther, a 14-year-old black domestic short-hair who went missing from Bevan Close, and Zippy, a six-year-old black male who went missing from Bliss Close on September 13.

Zippy’s owner Shirley Hopkins said: “I’ve done everything I can to find him – reported him to Wood Green Animal Shelters, put it on Facebook, knocked on doors in the area, but with no luck. If someone is out there taking cats, they must be cruel, cold-hearted people.”

Laura Conway, 23, alerted The Hunts Post after reading about the series of disappearances on Facebook. The former Huntingdon resident, who lives in Peterborough, said: “There were over 100 comments from people, some saying they’d recently lost cats themselves. I thought it was a bit suspicious, with at least four going missing in such a short space of time.”

Cambridgeshire police said there had been no reported cases of missing cats in Huntingdon since June and, according to Cromwell Vets, in Huntingdon, there had been no significant rise in the number of cats reported missing in recent weeks.

The surgery said it received one call a day about missing cats. Senior practitioner David Farrell said he encouraged owners to contact the clinic.

An RSPCA spokesman said: “We have been made aware of cats being reported missing in the Huntingdon area. If anyone has any information they should contact the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999.”