Elderly Biscayne Park man arrested for poisoning his neighbor’s cats, police say – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports
BISCAYNE PARK, FLA. (WSVN) – An elderly man is behind bars after he poisoned his neighbor’s cats in Biscayne Park by leaving out trays of tainted food, authorities said.
A family is mourning after two of their cats had to be put down. Investigators said both pets suffered extensive kidney damage caused by eating poison.
One of the cats’ owners, who identified herself as Katherine, spoke with 7News on Thursday.
“A generous read would be that [my neighbor] has a gross misunderstanding of how you would deal with a problem with animals,” she said.
Katherine said she made the horrific discovery when she returned to her home over the weekend to find one of her cats sick.
“When I called her name, she couldn’t get up; she could only lift her head,” said Katherine.
After rushing the 1-and-a-half year old cat, named Little, to the vet, the pets’ owner said she was shocked by what they found.
“[We were told] that her kidney values were off the charts, that she had catastrophic organ damage and that we would have to put her down,” said Katherine. “[Little] was so sweet and so curious and so smart.”
Little’s older sister, Stella, would suffer the same fate not long after they returned.
“When we came back from putting her down was when we found her sister dead in the backyard,” said Katherine.
Her family is now heartbroken by the sudden loss of two beloved pets in one day.
Stella and Little’s mom, Patches, survived.
In the following days, Katherine and her family began to work out how both cats got poisoned.
Katherine and her family told 7News they noticed someone had been placing blue trays out with food for several months.
“These trays were placed in public, not on private property,” said Katherine.
Upon looking through surveillance footage, the family said, their neighbor, 72-year-old Chaim Gubitz, is seen placing those trays.
After an investigation, police arrested Gubitz.
The cat-loving family is hoping others in the neighborhood will be more receptive to showing compassion to any cat they come across.
“Whether you see cats as pests, as overpopulation or as beloved family members, as I did, there’s a right and wrong way to handle these situations,” said Katherine. “You contact pest control, you contact animal services. You don’t endanger the community.”
Gubitz is facing a felony animal cruelty charge. He has since bonded out of jail.
The suspect’s neighbors believe he won’t be doing this again.
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
