A family whose pet cat died as a result of it being poisoned is offering a reward for any information which could lead to a criminal conviction.
Ashlee Carter, 22, of Langdon Crescent, East Ham, is mourning the loss of her black and white cat, Squeak, who died on Sunday of last week.
She wants to discover whether the cat was poisoned deliberately or not. Peter Wilkinson, Ashlee’s stepdad, said the four-year-old’s bizarre death on August 3 took the family by surprise. “A neighbour was calling up to my partner,” he said. “The cat was in terrible pain and couldn’t breathe. The dog was going mad because he saw the cat in distress.
“Then the cat went under a parked car. I brought it into the house. We called the RSPCA to see what we should do, but the cat was too far gone. It died in about 20 minutes.”
Ashlee, 22, who lives with her mother, Lynne, said: “When I got home from work he was fine, and then about 8pm my mum called me downstairs, saying Squeak couldn’t breathe and it was choking.
“By the time I got downstairs the cat was dead.”
The family took Squeak to the vet, who examined the cat and said it had died of poisoning.
“The vet said it’s definitely been poisoned,” said Mr Wilkinson. He and the family have requested an autopsy to find out what sort of poison was used.
The vet told him it wasn’t rat poison, and there was food in the cat’s stomach when it died.
Mr Wilkinson has said he is willing to give a reward for information that leads to anyone responsible being convicted.
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