{"id":348752,"date":"2026-09-16T23:05:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/348752\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T23:05:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:05:32","slug":"18-cats-racoons-poisioned-by-brooklyn-feline-hating-coward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/348752\/","title":{"rendered":"18 cats, racoons poisioned by Brooklyn feline-hating ‘coward’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sadistic creep wiped out an entire Brooklyn cat colony <\/a>last week by pumping the felines full of enough rat poison to \u201ctake out an elephant,\u201d their devastated caretaker said.<\/p>\n

At least 18 cats and three raccoons were callously killed in the mass murder, which has ignited outrage in the Bath Beach neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Albert Berto discovered the horrifying scene last Tuesday morning when he stepped outside to give the 24 cats their daily breakfast \u2014 but only one cat rushed to the sound of the shaking food can.<\/p>\n

\"SurvivingAt least 18 cats were found dead in a Brooklyn yard this week. Albert Berto<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when he looked beneath his deck and found the bodies of Mr. Weatherby, Mr. Yellow, the Tiger Twins and three more \u2014 all bleeding from the nose, mouth and rectum.<\/p>\n

He found more bodies in the following week until he recovered 18 cats and three raccoons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love those cats. I took them in.<\/a> I can\u2019t even believe this is happening. The pain they must have suffered. It\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Berto told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t sleep. I gotta take NyQuil every night to go to sleep. I\u2019m just constantly dreaming about seeing them pulling those cats out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berto, who had cared for the cats for eight years, instantly knew that the colony was the target of poisoning, possibly delivered through poisoned food.<\/p>\n

\"SurvivingAlbert Berto had cared for the colony for eight years. Albert Berto<\/p>\n

The ASPCA took the bodies of the first seven victims in for a necropsy, the results of which is still pending and could take weeks.<\/p>\n

Albert and local animal activists took another kitten from the colony, which they found later in the week, to a private vet, who delivered the news that the cat had high levels of rat poison in its system, likely delivered by its food, wildlife activist Reeva Grammatikopoulos, who responded to the murder, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was 800 milligrams of rat poison. The toxicology guy said it would kill an elephant. That\u2019s what was in these cats,\u201d said Berto.<\/p>\n

Berto and other neighbors believe they know the sick individual responsible for the mass murder, saying the person made it clear they hated the felines and complained that the cats defecated in his yard.<\/p>\n

The grieving Brooklyn man had even offered to clean up after the colony, but never had the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took matters into their own hands. They took the cheap way out. They took the coward\u2019s way out,\u201d Berto said. <\/p>\n

Only five cats survived the carnage \u2014 and Berto is desperately looking to rehome them: \u201cThey\u2019re not safe over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NYPD\u2019s Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad and ASPCA are still investigating the cat killing, telling The Post that there have not yet been any arrests.<\/p>\n

The lack of accountability has ignited outrage in the South Brooklyn nabe.<\/p>\n

A petition demanding that the NYPD and ASPCA<\/a> \u201cpursue charges against whoever is responsible\u201d garnered over 700 signatures, while area politicians have also put pressure on the agencies to close the probe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fervent hope is that their efforts will lead to the identification of the person or people behind this horrific turn of events, and that the perpetrator or perpetrators will be brought to justice,\u201d Assemblyman William Colton wrote in a letter Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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Stray, or \u201ccommunity,\u201d cats are protected by state Agriculture and Market Laws.<\/p>\n

Poisoning or attempted poisoning is considered a misdemeanor and punishable by up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sadistic creep wiped out an entire Brooklyn cat colony last week by pumping the felines full of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1457,98,100,99,6123,57,9,24,63,103,15449,58],"class_list":["post-348752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-animals","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-cats","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-poison","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}