Pet Cat Found Strangled To Death With Dog Leash In Neighbor's Yard

A pet owner was left devastated after her cat was found dead in her neighbor’s yard. The incident took place in Virginia Beach on Aug.19.

Speaking to local CBS-affiliated television station WTKR on Saturday, Ellen Sarar, the pet owner, said she had gone to a nearby pharmacy after leaving her 7-year-old cat outside home and when she returned, the feline was nowhere to be found.

Recalling the incident Sarar said, "Before I left, I let my cat out, and when I returned 45 minutes later, he wasn't there to be let in.”

A while later, her neighbor knocked on the door and broke the heartbreaking news to her.

"She was saying that my cat, Mally, was dead in her yard," Sarar said.

She and her husband ran out to the neighbor’s yard only to find the feline lying dead under a tree. They noticed a dog leash tied firmly around the cat’s neck.

Speaking about the cat, Sarar said, "This was the sweetest cat. I have a hole in my heart; I miss him so much. I was like, 'What the heck, who could do that and strangle a cat?’ It's terrible. It's an emptiness and a sadness.”

Virginia Beach Animal Control was investigating the incident, however, no leads were found.

The family, however, is quite certain that the cat was strangled to death and that it wasn’t an accident.

"The way the knot was done, and cats don't tie knots,” said Steve, Sarar’s husband.

Sarar added that another cat was found hanging in a backyard in early August, however, the animal control did not receive any report about it.

"Right now we are just hoping whoever did this is caught and this does not continue, as it's so traumatic," the woman said.