Swindon street left reeling after four cats die from unknown 'poison'

The first cat, Betty, who lived with her owner Kate Blackford, 43 in Emerald Crescent, Abbey Farm, Swindon fell ill at 11.30pm on Friday night, August 11 and was rushed to a vets where she was put to sleep. 

By 11.30am the following Saturday, four cats in total had died. 

The RSPCA are now believed to be investigating and it has also been reported to Wiltshire Police. 

Betty, Kate Blackford's cat was the first to die (Image: Kate Blackford)

Kate said: "I went to the back door and she was making awful noises, heavy breathing and her tongue was hanging out, she started to fit."

She rushed Betty to the emergency Vets Now practice but she could not be saved and was put to sleep.

But Kate's night didn't end there because after she got home at around 2am in the morning, she received a concerned message from neighbour Sarah Jane-Webb, 33, asking her to come and look at her cat, Chase, because something was wrong with him. 

Sarah Jayne-Webb's cat Chase was the next to be affected (Image: Sarah-Jane Webb)

Kate was able to confirm that Chase was showing the same symptoms as Betty and urged Sarah, a veterinary receptionist, to take him to the vets immediately, but it was too late for him as well. 

Sarah said: "The vets believed it was some sort of fast-acting toxin as Chase had already started to have seizures before he arrived, and they ruled out rat poison."

Meanwhile, just doors away and unbeknownst to her that this was unfolding, Harri Thompson, 31, had gone out to get in her laundry, inadvertently letting her cat Nala out. 

Thinking nothing of it she went to sleep expecting to be woken up by Nala wanting to come back in at 3am as usual, but instead woke up around 7am with messages on her phone about what had happened to the others. 

Nala, owned by Harri Thompson was the next to be struck by the mysterious poison (Image: Harri Thompson)

She began looking for Nala and found her alive but in a bad way in her garden. After being taken to a vet, she was also put to sleep because of her condition. 

"She was frothing at the mouth, freezing cold, and her paws were bent back so she was walking on her wrists," Harri said. 

"I then got a call at around 11.30 from the vets to tell me that her ribs had been broken and that they didn't think she'd been hit by a car."

The previous year, Harri had another cat go missing, Obie, who she found weeks later in a locked bin store, residents who had used it during that time had assured her he wasn't in there the whole time. 

Simba, also owned by Kate Blackford, was the last known cat to be affected and die from the unknown 'poison' (Image: Kate Blackford)

At the same time, just doors away, Kate realised that her other cat Simba was missing, and after a quick search, she found him dead in her garden - making him the fourth cat overall to have died under mysterious circumstances. 

This has now left three households within spitting distance of each other with a lot of unanswered questions about what could have possibly happened, mounting vet bills including the cost of autopsies, and also the heartbreak of having to deal with the loss of a beloved pet. 

It has also had a profound effect on the neighbourhood, which all three affected families said was 'deathly quiet'. 

The proximity of the three households who lost beloved pets in the bizarre and unexplained spate of 'poisonings' in Swindon (Image: Chris Thompson)

"It's gut-wrenching, we're a really close community, but I'm scared," Harri said.

"I don't want to let my other pets out, I don't want to let my children out, I don't know what might happen."

"It's heartbreaking," added Kate, "It's like a ghost street now, people shouldn't have to live in fear like this."

The RSPCA, Wiltshire Police and both Drove and Eastcott Vets were approached for further comment.