MOUNT DESERT — Police are investigating a case in which several dead cats were found in a freezer in a vacated apartment on Main Street in the local village of Northeast Harbor.

Mount Desert police Officer Leigh Guildford declined Tuesday night to say specifically how many dead cats were found in the freezer but did say there were fewer than 10. He said the cats were found last week after a tenant had moved out and the apartment was being cleaned.

Guildford acknowledged that, at first glance, the presence of multiple dead cats in the freezer might seem “absolutely suspicious” but said it is too early to say whether a crime may have been committed. Officials are trying to determine how the felines died, he said.

To that end, local police have turned the cat corpses over to state animal welfare agents who will perform necropsies on them.

A message left Wednesday morning at the Animal Welfare Office, part of the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, was not immediately returned.

Guildford said there have not been local reports about cats going missing, so police do not believe any of the dead cats might be anyone’s pet. The assumption at this point, he said, is that all the cats were feral.

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