Letter: If there's a London cat killer, we should worry

From Anne Barnfield, London, Ontario, Canada

I agree with Ian Adam in finding Stephen Harris's claims regarding foxes killing cats unconvincing (Letters, 18 August). If a fox had “weak jaws”, why would it chew off, and then remove, the head (which it presumably could not then eat), rather than going for the “soft underbelly” where the internal organs would be available as food? There is an established link between animal abuse and abuse of humans, concurrently or as an escalation of behaviour. If this is a person, then they need to be stopped, for the sake of the cats, but also, potentially, for that of other humans.

The editor writes:
• Our longer online version of Harris's piece noted that because foxes have weak jaws, they start chewing at narrower parts of a carcass, including the neck, where they can more easily get a grip with the sharper molars at the side of their mouth. Sheep farmers have seen foxes do this to dead lambs.