Police investigating after cat found dead in Ridgeway backyard

A Ridgeway family is “devastated” after finding a horrific scene involving their pet on the weekend.

On Saturday, Mayg Fortin and her husband Johnny came home to find their one-year-old female cat Latisha dead in the backyard of their home on Dominion Road near Prospect Point Road.

Its tail was missing, organs exposed, was skinned, and appeared to have been slit with a knife.

“She was placed like she was sleeping,” Fortin told Fort Erie Radio in an interview, adding they highly suspect the cat’s death was a result of a human and not an animal attack.

“There’s no way it could have been an animal,” said Fortin, pointing to the gruesome details of how they found Latisha behind their eight-year-old daughter’s trampoline.

“It’s so surreal that anyone could do that,” she said, adding her twin 16-year-old daughters are also heartbroken. “It’s just horrendous.”

Fortin said Latisha has been an indoor cat for most of her life, but had recently been spending time on the back deck. She’d also been getting more bold and going further into the yard in recent weeks.

She “just started venturing past the deck,” Fortin said.

Police were immediately notified and are investigating.

On July 5, 2025, Niagara Regional Police (NRP) responded to a suspicious circumstances call for service at a home in Ridgeway, explained communications officer Constable Luke Lindley.

A family cat was found deceased in the rear yard of the home “with concerning injuries,” he said.

“Initial investigation could not determine the exact nature of the cause of death of the cat, however, injuries were…not necessarily consistent with an attack from another animal,” said Lindley in a statement to Fort Erie Radio.

The matter lies with detectives and is still ongoing.

“It is too early in the investigation to determine whether the death of the cat was the result of an intentional human action,” said Lindley.

Instances of potential animal cruelty are “taken seriously” by NRP and investigating officers are “actively working on trying to find a conclusion to this incident.”

At this time there are no arrests or suspects, nor has a cause of death been confirmed, said Lindley.

Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact police at (905) 688-4111, option 3, extension 1009554.

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