Yonkers & Westchester News 2014: 25 Dead Cats Found Hanging From Trees in Vacant Lot in Yonkers
A worker with the Yonkers Department of Public Works discovered 25 slain cats hanging like ornaments from a Yonkers tree on Thursday morning.
According to a Westchester County ASPCA official, necropsies revealed that three of the dead felines were killed by blunt force trauma to the head. They were all found stuffed into plastic bags.
The results "seemed pretty consistent with the condition the other bodies were in" and officials believe all the cats died from violence, said Executive Director Shannon Laukhuf said, according to the New York Daily News.
Brett Pisano, the Yonkers sanitation worker who made the discovery, said he came across something similiar last summer while working in the vacant Overlook Terrace lot.
"Not as many, maybe two or three, but hanging in bags like this," he told the Daily News.
Glenn Stefanik said that he was working with his crew Thursday morning by the Hudson River when he noticed an animal dangling from a tree branch. "We pulled on the bag and a little black kitten fell out," he said, according to the New York Times. "It was a day or two old," he added.
Subsequently, the workers called the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which arrived around 10 a.m.
"We have never been confronted by a scene like this," said Ernest Lungaro, the agency's director of humane law enforcement.
In addition to the cats, a wooden baseball bat, a metal pipe and two shovels were also found in the area.
As of Friday, officers were still investigating the scene.