A domesticated cat was euthanized Tuesday (Oct. 31) after it was attacked by a wild animal on Spring Street in Westbrook.
Sgt. Mike Sanphy of the Westbrook police rushed a black and white cat to an animal emergency clinic on Warren Avenue in Portland about 9 p.m. But Sanphy said the cat couldn’t be saved. Sanphy advised residents to keep pets in at night and not to approach strange animals.
Sanphy said the cat sustained a lacerated back and throat and he said the cat was having trouble breathing. A staff member of a healthcare center held a box containing the cat in the back seat of Sanphy’s cruiser en route to the animal clinic.
He said two employees of the Springbrook Center witnessed the attack and chased away a dark animal, which they described as fast. “They spooked it,” Sanphy said.
From the description, Westbrook Animal Control Officer Jane Didzbalis identified the wild animal. “It was a fisher,” she said. “They look like a big weasel.”
Didzbalis said fishers live high in cavities of trees. She said an adult fisher weighs three to 12 pounds and can be up to 30 inches long with a tail up to 17 inches. A fisher usually feeds on porcupines, mice and squirrels.
She is unaware of any similar attack in Westbrook.
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