JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A serial cat killer in Springfield has neighbors worried about their safety.
First Coast News spoke with Margaret Taylor who found two dead cats in dumpster near her home.
Taylor says two weeks ago. she was working outside of her home and smelled a strong stench.
“I started walking around and found a dumpster very close to my house and there was trash around the outside so I tossed a piece a wood in the dumpster and a bunch of flies flew up and I noticed the smell then,” said Taylor.
Taylor got her ladder and found the two cats in a canvass bag that was in the dumpster.
She made a post on the community’s Facebook page about the dead cats to try to find the owners.
She later found out one of the cats belonged to her neighbor.
Another neighbor, Dana Minyard, wrote that his beloved cat of 14 years was one of the cats found in the dumpster, "mutilated."
Minyard started a GoFundMe to raise funds to offer a reward for finding this person.
“We started noticing that were so many cats missing all of the sudden, so we started putting the word out asking people to check their cameras,” Taylor said.
Carlos Spencer says it was Saturday night when he captured video of a man luring a cat to come towards him, grabbing the cat, and then putting all his weight on the animal.
“Unfortunately we have a serial cat killer in Springfield and we got to make sure we are looking out for each other," said Spencer.
Spencer says after a few minutes the man picked up the lifeless cat in a white tarp and walked away.
“I alerted the neighbors he got up she hopped in the truck with me and we were looking for him and she said is that him. I said that’s him," said Spencer.
He says when they got out the car to approach the man he ran away.
First Coast News obtained surveillance video from another neighbor, who believes was the same man who killed the cat.
Spencer is encouraging neighbors to pay attention what’s going on around you and to protect your animals at all costs.
“I just want to say it was gut wrenching and horrible to watch that, and the way this guy was aggressive with this animal you can tell he has done it before and we just have to get this man off the street," said Spencer.
The city says animal control spoke to a neighbor this morning about the dead and missing cats.
A report indicated that there is a video, but the video is dark and the person cannot be identified.
Animal Control is asking neighbors to keep them updated of any additional information that becomes available.