Dead cats along Howard Frankland concern drivers

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Drivers who commute across the Howard Frankland Bridge are wondering how cats managed to get to the middle of the bridge. The cats are now road kill and many see their presence as suspicious.

One commuter, Mary Beth Singh said she started noticing the animals at the end of May.

"It's too coincidental. Nothing in 12 years, [and then] four or five in two weeks," said Singh, who had been traveling across the bridge for a dozen years. "I love all animals and to see the way they're dying is just terrible."

Singh's coworker, Chris Slattery, noticed the same thing.

"It's certainly concerning," he said. "I'm an animal-lover, like most people probably, and whether it was a cat, a dog or any other animal, for that matter, if it's just being slaughtered or treated that way, I don't want to see it happen."

Singh and Slattery said they have seen as many as seven dead cats and all have been along the left shoulder driving north across the bridge.

All of the animals have been toward the peak of the bridge's hump.

"That's more than two miles from either end of the bridge," Singh said. "A cat's not going to walk more than two miles on a narrow emergency lane. They're being thrown out."

Singh said she and her friends are keeping an eye out for someone who might be responsible, and they're hoping other drivers do the same.

"Someone needs to catch this, because people that do this to animals, if you look into history, have done bad things to humans later on in life," she said.

"[We're] just trying to get some answers and see if it can be stopped or prevented, and maybe save a life in the meantime," Slattery added.

A spokesperson for Florida Highway Patrol said troopers have received four reports of dead cats in the middle of the bridge. They urged anyone who sees anything suspicious to dial *FHP or 911.