Authorities are investigating a rash of cat strangulations in Lincoln County, an area with a history of serial animal mutilations, a Sheriff's Department official said Wednesday.

Since January, deputies have found five orange cats of varying ages strangled with bailing twine and left along a shoulder of county Highway K, between Town Hall Road and Highway C near Merrill, said sheriff's Lt. Jeff Jaeger.

"It's strange," Jaeger said. "We have no suspects. No other messages have been left. We haven't been able to piece it to anything."

The county's remote countryside has been targeted by Satanic cultists in the past, said Jaeger, who has been with the Sheriff's Department since 1980.

Previous acts of animal cruelty in the area include cow mutilations, and at least two instances in which the feet were cut off about 100 ducks near the Merrill Public Library, Jaeger said.

The strangulations are considered a Class E felony, punishable by up to $10,000 in fines or up to two years in prison, Jaeger said.

Reference:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel