Brighton: Concern for black cats after a number of pets go missing

Street cleaner Sean Keen works in Hanover, Brighton, and raised the alarm after seeing several posters for missing black cats in the area.

“I've noticed that many cats have gone missing in the area, and almost all of them, with slight exceptions, are black cats/black and white cats,” Sean said.

“I don't know if this coincidence or not, but it's disturbing to me that there appears to be a pattern in these poor things going missing.”

He said he was keeping an eye out for people’s pets in a post on Facebook, which got dozens of responses from residents who had also noticed a number of missing posters for black cats.

Wendell, a one-year-old black cat who lives in Coleman Street was missing for three days before being reunited with his owners on Monday. They said it was very out of character for him to not come home and his collar had been found streets away from their home.

Wendell was missing for three days before being found (Image: Lost Cats Brighton)

Other black cats Nero and Marmite were missing for days before being found.

Others are not so lucky.

READ MORE: Older Sussex cat no longer wanted by owners looking for home

Emma Rose said her black cat has been missing from Richmond Street since May.

“She is 14 and as a family we are devastated,” said Emma.

Kathy Solinin said: “Our lovely black fluffy cat went missing last September from Jersey Street and was found dead eight weeks later in a front garden in Worthing.”

One of several missing posters for black cats Sean has seen in recent days (Image: Sean Keen)

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: “Our thoughts go out to the owners of these missing cats who we understand must be incredibly worried about their much-loved pets.

“Cats can be keen explorers, so the RSPCA would always recommend microchipping them so that they can be returned to their owners as quickly as possible if they do get lost.

“As of June this year, it is now compulsory to microchip owned cats and this is very important for intrepid felines, as they are often outdoors on their own. For male cats, neutering can also reduce the tendency for them to roam.”

The RSPCA also offered advice to people in case their cat goes missing.

• Check your home and local area thoroughly
• If the animal is definitely missing, register them with a company such as Animal Search UK, Petslocated or the National Pets register
• Call your microchip company so they can flag your pet as missing. This will also alert them to anyone trying to re-register the same microchip number
• Call your local RSPCA centre or branch, and other local animal welfare organisations
• Contact your local vets
• Talk to neighbours, postman, milkman etc, as they may have seen the animal or observed something suspicious at the time they went missing
• Put flyers on notice boards and through letter boxes

People are told to report cats they think are stolen to police.

Sussex Police were contacted for comment.