'I can't imagine our lives without him': Cork family devastated as pet cat taken by e-bike duo

Residents across Cork have expressed alarm at a rise in the theft of cats and incidents of animal cruelty.

Last Wednesday night, Tracy Finnegan had her 13-year-old purebred Persian cat ‘Felix’ stolen by two men on an e-bike, and a neighbour near their home in Blackrock witnessed the incident.

“She noticed somebody beckoning the cat over, but she didn’t really pay any attention to it,” Ms Finnegan told The Echo.

“She then noticed a second individual on an e-bike come down towards the man who was trying to pet the cat … he grabbed the cat by the tail and jumped on the back of the e-bike and took off with them.

“My neighbour could hear Felix wailing or crying, and he was struggling to get away from them. But they took off at speed, so she lost sight of them when they turned a corner.”

CCTV footage being analysed

Ms Finnegan stayed out until 3am searching for Felix. CCTV footage is being analysed and has been circulated across Garda stations in an effort to identify the men on the e-bikes.

The family have yet to receive positive news.

“We’re out in the car every hour. We’re walking the greenway, but there’s been no sighting of him.

“I’m trying not to think the worst, but the way they manhandled him — if they held him by the tail, they weren’t worried about hurting him.”

Jessica Quinn, a trustee of Cat Action Trust Cork, said the incident is part of a wider spate of thefts largely concentrated in Mahon and the Glen.

Ms Quinn said the thefts are often connected to acts of animal cruelty, where dogs are set upon the cats that are subsequently savaged. Incidents of a similar nature have been reported across Cork over the past year.

“It’s mostly young teenage boys for the most part with their dogs, and they would go out with flashlights, and kind of like how people would lamp rabbits. It’s the same idea: flashing the torches into people’s gardens, and then setting the dog on the cat.

“We get reports, multiple times a week from people who say ‘they’re back out again’ … there’s so many instances where people have seen their cats being ripped apart in front of them, or on CCTV, or cats will go missing.”

Ms Quinn now says there are areas of Cork that Cat Action will not donate to for fear of putting cats at risk of potential cruelty.

She claimed little action had been taken by the gardaí, but that victims of the thefts are often also afraid to speak due to fears of repercussions.

Social media videos

Videos of cats being used to bait dogs are present on social media.

Ms Finnegan, who lives on a cul-de-sac, said she fears her house was actively staked out before Felix was robbed.

“My hope is that somebody took him just because they liked the look of him. But the fact that we haven’t seen any sight of him for me is a big worry. It looks like he’s been kept somewhere, or else he’s no longer alive,” she said.

“My hope is that actually he’s just afraid and he’s hiding.

“I can’t imagine our lives without him, I really can’t. It’s just so sad for us all. None of us have slept since he’s gone missing, so we’re all kind of functioning on adrenaline now at this point.”

Mahon councillor Peter Horgan said the issue routinely rears its head every few months. He said the actions were reflective of offenders giving in to “neanderthal temptation”.

“We’re all governed by the same laws … if you’re going doing these illegal actions, you should face the full rigour of the law,” he said.

A Cork garda told The Echo that while it can prove difficult to get a positive result in reported cat theft and torture cases, “we take every crime seriously”.

“Once we get a statement, we’re obliged to investigate,” said Sgt Mick O’Connell. “We have seen a trend before of people torturing cats, setting fire to animals, and things like that, but that hasn’t happened for a while.”