Miami Area Residents Fearful After More Than Two Dozen Cats Found Mutilated

May 27, 2009— -- When Miss Kitty didn't show up for breakfast one morning this month, her owner knew something was wrong with the 2-year-old stray cat they'd come to care for as a pet.

But when Thomas Shad went looking for the cat, he wasn't prepared for what he found.

"Her head was smashed in. Her head was crushed," he told ABCNews.com. "And her back legs were skinned."

Miss Kitty's gruesome killing was just one of the more than two dozen horrific cat deaths that have upset residents in neighboring upscale Miami-area towns in the last month. While mourning the loss of their pets, many of which were considered members of the family, some wonder if humans will be the next target.

"It's just heartbreaking to hear every day about another one," Thomas Shad's wife, Mary Lou Shad, said. "I'm concerned he's going to start escalating up to children and old ladies."

The Shads, who have two indoor cats that have not been harmed, began caring for Miss Kitty about a year and a half ago when the then-feral kitten started coming to their Cutler Bay house. And trapping Miss Kitty to spay her, the black cat lived outdoors on their property as the Shads worked to turn her into a house cat.

Now, Thomas Shad said, their other two cats are even allowed in the screened-in porch unless her or his wife are out there with them. There have been about 10 cats killed in his neighborhood alone, he said, including his neighbor's the same night as Miss Kitty's death.

All, he said, were mutilated or beaten in some way, some skinned and others gutted.

It's caused a great deal of fear and paranoia, according to Mary Lou Shad.

"When I'm driving I'm looking for dead cats," she said. "I don't need to live like this."

Miami-Dade Police Det. Robert Williams told ABCNews.com that the killings began in early April.

"It's very disconcerting," he said. "You have an individual or individuals out there who are attacking defenseless animals."