'Serial cat killer' arrested after felines 'tied up and injected with substance'

Daily Mirror

24-04-2025

Alejandro Acosta Oliveros, 45, was arrested after several cats were found dead and footage allegedly caught him abducting felines from several different neighbourhoods
A man alleged to have killed multiple cats has been arrested after being caught on camera, according to police.
Alejandro Acosta Oliveros, 45, was apprehended after police shared a clip of a suspect snatching a cat while it was between two cars. His arrest came following numerous "disturbing reports involving the suspected abuse and killing of cats," according to police. They did not reveal the actual number of cats that were found dead in suspicious circumstances.
‌
Oliveros was allegedly "positively identified" by numerous witnesses and he has since been charged with animal cruelty charges, although no details about whether any incriminating evidence being found has yet to be revealed. Surveillance footage appeared to show a man at the end of one driveway as he attempted to lure one kitten out with food.
Oliveros is then alleged to have picked up the cat before fleeing the area in a white pickup truck. Following his arrest by police in Santa Ana police, in California, Oliveros was taken into custody. Orange County neighbours reported seeing a man taking cats. One resident told local network KTLA: "We saw our cameras and this guy just grabbed a neighbourhood cat, seemed like he tied his legs up and took him around 5pm."
Another person said: "My neighbour's cat was killed by a man who injected it with some sort of substance." In another disturbing incident in the neighbouring Westminster area, the killer was spotted snatching a 10-month-old Bengal Lynx cat from outside a home.
‌
According to a 2021 report from total.vet, there were some 2,952 animal cruelty offences that were recorded in Califronia that year.
This made up about 17 per cent of all nationwide cases, although the state has a population larger than numerous states combined.
The case will remind British readers of the so-called UK cat killer who was alleged to have murdered hundreds of pets across the countr y. The fiend - formerly known as the Croydon Cat Killer, and then subsequently the M25 Cat Killer - drew international attention after a spate of acute mutilations with similar characteristics.
‌
Cats would be found decapitated with their tails cut off. Both cuts would be incredibly clean, and there would be no blood present.
Some time later - even a few days later - the head or tail would reappear in the exact same location to where the body was found. Hundreds of cases were reported in just three years, from 2015.
The South London Animal Investigation Network claimed that a killer or killers were responsible for the gruesome deaths of cats, kittens, foxes, guinea pigs, rabbits and squirrels over an eight-year period.
Vets said that each of the killings were caused by humans after analysing them in person or by looking at detailed photographs, according to the group. Mutilations were recorded across England with cases from as far south as Truro, in Cornwall, to Harrogate, in North Yorkshire.
The alleged UK cat killer, previously known as the Croydon cat killer led to a joint investigation between the Metropolitan Police and the local charity South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty.
But police closed Operation Takahe in September claiming there was a lack of evidence of any human involvement in the deaths of several cats in the area.