Cats that are staying out later than usual, refusing food, or coming home smelling strange could be the target of a "cat seducer," according to experts who say well-meaning thieves are luring in pets that do not belong to them with expensive food and treats.
Concerned owners told the Daily Mail they have found their cats piling on the pounds after a neighbour began secretly feeding them, and in some cases owners say their pets have been taken away for good.
Colin Butcher, a stolen animal recovery expert from The Pet Detectives, said some cat seducers are simply "wilfully blind" to the consequences of their actions. He said he meets about three people a week who claim to have adopted a "stray" they found in their garden without looking for an existing owner.
On social media, animal lovers joke about the "cat distribution system" and encourage others to feed and take in neighbourhood cats. But Butcher warned that there are also "real crooks" out there actively trying to steal their neighbours' pets.
How Callie the cat gained weight
Anne Bennett told the Daily Mail she adopted her cat, Callie, from a rescue shelter in 2016, when Callie was two years old. Bennett said Callie had spent more than six months at the rescue because she is a very independent cat who does not like to be picked up and requires a hand sniff before being petted.
The family moved house several times over the years and always let Callie roam outside once they had settled in. There was never a problem with neighbours until late 2021, when they moved into their most recent home in Cheshire.
About three months after the move, Bennett noticed Callie had started gaining weight despite an unchanged diet. She initially suspected her partner was giving Callie extra food, but he was not.
Months later, Bennett's partner got talking to their next-door neighbours about "stray cats" and showed them photos of Callie. The neighbours said they recognised her as the cat eating the hedgehog food they left out, adding that she was always hungry for the meat they set down.
Bennett's partner asked the neighbours to stop leaving the meat somewhere cats could reach it, as Callie's weight had become a concern. Bennett's worry deepened when she found a small Facebook page dedicated to rescuing and feeding stray cats, on which the same neighbour had posted pictures of Callie asking whether she was a stray.
Bennett said the post attracted comments encouraging the neighbour to trap Callie and take her to a vet, and that the neighbour replied they had tried but she was too quick. Bennett said it was frightening to realise they had been trying to capture her cat just the other side of the garden hedge.
Although Bennett does not believe her neighbour was being deliberately malicious, she said she is now far more careful about letting her cats roam unsupervised.
Signs a cat may be targeted
According to Butcher, the signs someone may be trying to take a cat include:
- Increased absence from home
- Changes in eating behaviour
- Unusual smells on the cat
- Aggression towards other family pets
- Indifference to owners
- Coming home with their collar removed
A spokesperson for the RSPCA told the Daily Mail: "We would advise people not to feed a cat they believe belongs to someone else without the owner's permission. Cats may have specific dietary or medical needs, and feeding an owned cat can interfere with the care its owner is providing."
The RSPCA added that cats are naturally inquisitive and may visit other homes, which does not necessarily mean someone is deliberately trying to take them.
When feeding turns into theft
Butcher said some people cross the line from well-meaning interference into deliberate criminal activity. "Hiding amongst this vast number of wilfully blind people are the real crooks: 'animal hoarders,' also known as 'collectors,'" he said.
He said these individuals typically encourage a neighbour's cat to visit their garden more often by putting food out, then remove the cat's collar and give it a new name, before encouraging or carrying the cat indoors to be kept permanently. Butcher said he has encountered such people on many occasions and is involved in an average of six enquiries a week over cat ownership disputes.
A family's cats vanish
Lee Collins, from Didcot in Oxfordshire, believes his mother's two cats were stolen in this way after they stopped eating their food at home for days at a time, and the older cat disappeared for several days.
Collins said his mother saw a Facebook post from a neighbour looking for the owner of a sick cat they had been caring for. The neighbour wanted the real owner to come forward and take the cat to a vet. His mother was furious, Collins said, because the vet suspected the cat had been kicked or struck, and because it had taken the neighbour so long to try to contact anyone.
A few months later the cat vanished completely despite an extended search. Collins said his mother later ran into the grown-up son of the neighbour she suspected, who told her his parents had moved away months earlier, around the time the two cats disappeared. When she asked about the cats, he said he did not know anything but would ask, and she never saw him again.
Collins said his mother is convinced the neighbours lured her cat into their home and took it with them when they moved. He said the cats were older and had been part of the family for well over a decade, and that his mother is still angry about it.
Cats Protection and the Pet Abduction Act
Cats Protection, a charity, says about 13 per cent of the total UK cat population has been taken in from the street or otherwise acquired outside formal adoption or purchase. Meanwhile, younger, more affluent owners are increasingly keeping pets indoors or restricting them to enclosed "catios," which can feed the perception that any collarless cat wandering the street is a stray.
Cats are legally required to be microchipped, but cat seducers may not think to take their new pet to a vet to check for an existing owner. Since the Pet Abduction Act came into force in 2024, this behaviour could result in criminal prosecution. The law makes it an offence to remove a cat from the lawful control of its owner, including by "causing or inducing" it to go with someone else.
Prosecutions remain exceptionally rare, and Butcher said police are often reluctant to get involved. Between August 2024 and April 2026, the Crown Prosecution Service recorded just one charged offence related to cats, compared with ten related to dogs. "When cat owners call the police, they reach a call centre operator, who simply responds by saying no criminal offence has been committed," Butcher said.
The RSPCA said that if someone suspects a neighbour is deliberately feeding their cat, they should speak to the neighbour first and explain their concerns. The charity also suggested a paper collar can be used to leave a message asking anyone who finds or feeds the cat to contact its owner.
