MALACCA: Animal lovers around the country have lodged 30 police reports against three men over photographs posted on Facebook showing them feeding live cats to pythons.

They are demanding that action be taken against the men, said to be snake charmers from Kuala Lumpur, for animal cruelty.

However, the photographs have since been deleted.

Manager Intan Nuraida Rahman, 34, who was one of those who lodged a report, alleged that the men had written in their Facebook post on Jan 5 that the cats were collected from the streets and fed alive to the snakes.

In her report, she also alleged that there were pictures of the men throwing the cats into the pythons’ cage and of them watching the snakes attacking and swallowing their prey.

“The pictures are repulsive,” said Intan Nuraida, who lodged a report at the Ayer Keroh police station on Wednesday.

Malacca Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals chairman Vincent Low, who was informed of the pictures, said he believed that these could finally explain a two-year “mystery” behind cases of missing cats in the state.

“Based on the latest development, we have told our counterparts in Seremban, Johor Baru and Kuala Lumpur to be on the alert for missing cats as this issue is not only confined to Malacca,” he said.

Kuala Lumpur/Selangor Cat Lovers Association chairman Rezan Thamby said it was still waiting for more of its members to lodge police reports.

“So far, we have had 30 police reports.

“More reports are expected to be lodged before we press for action against the three men.

“When we confronted them, they denied having fed the cats to the snakes,” he said.

Rezan added that the pictures had been deleted from Facebook.

“But we are determined to get to the bottom of this inhumane act,” he said, adding that the pythons should be sent for DNA tests to see if they had indeed eaten cats.