Pet owners warned as Wheat Ridge sees uptick in overnight prey activity

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (KDVR) — Wheat Ridge police are warning pet owners as they experience an uptick in overnight prey animal activity in the area.

CJ Raica’s cat Blackie recently went missing. He posted flyers around his Wheat Ridge neighborhood and received a heartbreaking call from a neighbor who found Blackie killed by wildlife in her backyard.

“I’ve always had indoor-outdoor cats, and nothing like this ever really happened,” Raica said. “Other people: Please, please, please don’t. It’s not worth it. You do not want to find your pet like that. You don’t. It’s just too hard.”

Predators ‘out and about’ at night

Community service officers with the Wheat Ridge Police Department have noticed an uptick in overnight prey animal activity, with a number of recent reports of killed and missing cats.

Officials sent FOX31 a photo of a believed bobcat sighting in broad daylight Thursday in someone’s backyard.

“A lot of these wildlife, the foxes, the coyotes in particular, that you’re going to see more in these kind of suburb areas of Denver, they’re out and about,” said Alex Rose, public information officer for Wheat Ridge police. “We do believe that the warmer temperatures are kind of driving them out to go further and to look for food. So what we want our residents to do is to make sure that they’re limiting those food options.”

Rose said the calls typically happen overnight. While they suggest keeping pets secure and inside 24 hours this time of year, they stress keeping an especially close eye on pets during dusk, dawn and nighttime.

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