Bobcat found mysteriously dead, hanging from tree in Safety Harbor neighborhood

SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. - A bobcat was found dead, mysteriously hanging from a tree in a Safety Harbor neighborhood. 

Animal experts now warn about the dangers of using rodenticide or rat poison.  It happened in the Country Villas neighborhood on Timberview Drive last week.

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"That was really depressing, being that that was one of the first bobcats that I had seen reported confidently in Safety Harbor, and it's deceased," said Fairl Thomas, a rescuer with Birds in Helping Hands Wildlife.  

Neighbors lovingly named it ‘Bobbi, the bobcat.' One neighbor described the bizarre scene. 

"I've never seen anything like it, I mean literally hanging like a monkey from a tree," said Debra Rowars said. 

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It took nearly two hours for Birds in Helping Hands volunteers to get it from the tree. 

"Rigor mortis had set in so there was no just pulling it down it had to be retrieved by pulling up," she said. "That's what made it so hard to retrieve because one of the arms was over the branch." 

The animal was then picked up by an FWC officer to be taken in for a necropsy.

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"Nine times out of ten when it's something like this, we can look at it and find that rodenticide had a role in the cause of death," Thomas said. "We know something unnatural happened to it. There were no signs of anything like impact from a vehicle or a gunshot. We want to see what's going on inside."

In 2022, ten great-horned owls in Phillipe Park and Safety Harbor tested positive for rodenticide. Thomas encourages residents to look into alternatives. 

"It all starts with contacting your pest control specialist and choosing someone who's going to use the alternatives. There's also non-toxic options," she said.

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