Cat (illustration)
Cat (illustration)Flash 90

Police on Sunday said that they had discovered an apartment in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, whose owner for years had been “collecting” the dead bodies of animals. According to police, the 66-year old-man stored dozens of animals, many of them cats, in his refrigerator and freezer, and others were lying around the apartment.

Police said that they were alerted to the situation by the complaint of a neighbor, who said that the man had threatened to kill her. She said that she was walking her dog last Friday when the man met her and accused her of “stealing his cat,” and threatened to kill her. She complained to police, who paid a visit to the man's home Saturday night, and made the discovery. He was arrested and is to be arraigned in court on Monday.

Police said that they had never seen a case like this in Israel before. An investigation of the man's freezer yielded the frozen bodies of 38 cats, along with some rats and mice. All the animals appeared to have been frozen. The bodies of the animals have been sent for forensic analysis to firmly establish the cause of death.

According to Dr. Uri Tzarfati, the municipal veterinarian of Bat Yam, said that the scene was “shocking. We came in at the request of police and were presented with this scenario. I have never seen anything more cruel than this before.”