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An animal lover who has devoted three years of his life to tracking down the so-called Croydon Cat Killer says the hunt has been boosted by police declaring that the killer doesn't exist.

After countless police hours were poured into the investigation, officers concluded in September that the animals were in fact being hit by cars and then mutilated by foxes.

Rather than this spelling the end of the high-profile hunt for a killer, for South Norwood Animal Rescue Liberty (SNARL) - which had been helping police - the investigation has been given a new lease of life according to one of its co-founders.

“Now police investigations are over I can go straight to the scene to see the cats for myself without waiting for police,” said Tony Jenkins.

“And I know what I am looking at now. We won’t be asking police to reopen the investigation, we are going to get on with it ourselves.

“We want people to remain vigilant, and we will let people know about and encourage people to report suspicious cat deaths to us.”

Tony claims police officers have told him they don’t believe the cats are being killed by traffic and then scavenged.

In a bid to step up the hunt, SNARL have joined forces with retired Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville.

Tony did not want to reveal too much about the killer's methods to stop them from gaining an advantage.

But he did say they are sending cases to vets to verify injuries.

He said: “We know for a fact foxes rarely kill cats but if they are already dead they will scavenge.

“Firstly, the vast majority of cats we have seen have not been in road traffic collisions, when they are hit their claws come out but the vast majority of cats we see do not have their claws out.

“I have been out to a number of cases where cats have been hit by a car and foxes take them away and tear them up in the stomach.”

Parkside Veterinary Centre, in Carshalton, posted a statement on its Facebook page in October encouraging people to “remain vigilant”.

The statement read: “In spite of recent media coverage linking foxes to many unexplained injuries and deaths of local domestic cats, Parkside Veterinary Centre would urge all cat owners to remain vigilant and cautious when letting their pets out at night.

“We have seen a few upsetting and suspicious deaths and mutilations, which we have reported to the police and SNARL.

“We will continue to work with SNARL in their ongoing effort to collate examples and evidence, sadly the most recent of which was brought to us after the media statement was released.”

Why did the police abandon the case?

The deaths of hundreds of animals - mainly cats - had been linked to the so-called Croydon Cat Killer.

Police officers had previously said they were utterly convinced some of the deaths were down to a human.

It was even thought that the killer was likely to be from or have friends or relatives in Addiscombe, due to the number of mutilated cats found in the area.

And their were fears the blood-thirsty killer might turn his attention to humans.

But CCTV footage has never emerged of a suspect and although SNARL said it had given the Met a list of names of potential suspects, nobody was ever arrested over the spate of deaths.

Despite this the news that the investigation was being closed came as a huge shock to the general public and particularly pet owners who were convinced their cats had been killed at the hands of a human.

Announcing the decision to end the investigation, Commander Amanda Pearson said: “On average, the Met receives over 1,000 calls each month relating to animals and animal welfare.

“We understand the reason for this - people trust the police to help them when they suspect others have done wrong, fear for their own safety or simply are facing situations that they are unable to handle themselves.

“We will always assist the public in an emergency, but I would urge people to report concerns relating to animal welfare in the first instance to the RSPCA.

“The decision was made to allocate a large number of similar reports of mutilated cats to the officers who were investigating the initial spate of such allegations. In particular, they were following up the six suspicious cases identified by the post-mortem examinations.

“While this increased the workload of those officers, it significantly reduced the resources that would have been required for different officers in different units to record and assess each allegation separately.

“It is this collating of reports that enabled officers to work with experts and reach the conclusion that no further police investigations are required into any of the allegations relating to mutilated cats.”

Explaining its conclusions, the Met Police added in a statement: “The cats were killed due to major blunt force trauma consistent with vehicle collisions. Scavenging foxes then mutilated body parts - especially heads and tails.”