A trio of tiny kittens who were left for dead in a dog waste bin were saved by people out walking their dogs.
Had the little babies not been found, rescuers say they would have died from hunger and thirst, trapped in a foul metal tomb in St Austell, Cornwall.
At just three weeks old, the kittens were dumped in the smelly bin the Duporth area before a horrified pair of dog walkers worked together to carefully get them out.
The kittens were then taken to the local Sally’s Cat Rescue sanctuary.
Sally, who has run the sanctuary for 20 years, says: ‘A lady was out walking her dog and went to put some dog poo in the bin and to her surprise she could hear crying.
‘There was three kittens in there – she managed to retrieve them.
‘She called us, and we went and collected the kittens.
‘They were shaken up – they are between three and four weeks, covered in fleas, but other than that in generally good health.
‘We don’t know how long they’ve been in there, we’re guessing they’d been dumped perhaps the night before, so maybe 12 hours, 24 hours.
‘Obviously with this weather, it’s warm, it’s dry, it’s sticky, to me that wasn’t somebody dumping them hoping they’d be found, it was somebody dumping them for a more sinister reason.
‘If anybody knows anything, we would happily take the kittens’ mum, they can drop her to us anonymously, they can leave her outside my front door.
‘Anything that means we can reunite them because these kittens aren’t really old enough to be without a mum so we’re having to hand rear them.
‘What we’re saying to people is we’re always here, if you’re that desperate ring us, dump them on my doorstep if you have to, on the vet’s doorstep but there’s nothing that means these three kittens deserve to lose their life.’
Sally and the rest of her team care for kittens that come into their care until they’re 11 weeks old, and are vaccinated and neutered.
While she’s had lots of offers from people who want to take the kittens in, they’re simply too young for the time being.
The RSPCA has warned that some people who bought animals as a source of comfort over lockdown could be growing tired of them.
The charity’s Norfolk West Branch’s cattery is currently full, with 14 cats and eight kittens, and they have a waiting list of more waiting to come into their care that’s still growing.
Carl Saunders, general manager at the branch’s rehoming centre, adds: ‘We really are inundated with cats and kittens at the moment.
‘It is concerning, and we hope this isn’t the start of something bigger.
‘Fortunately, we still have members of the public contacting us to adopt the cats – but it is a case as soon as one goes out for rehoming, there is another one filling their pen.
‘We just wanted to highlight this issue and also remind owners the importance of getting their cats neutered so that they avoid having accidental litters.’
The charity has raised concerns that, while many families no-doubt considered the long-term impact of taking on a pet over lockdown, others may not have been thinking about what it would be like post-lockdown.
If you’re thinking of getting a pet, it’s vitally important to do your research and be sure you can commit to caring for an animal.
‘Sadly, we know that as animals are so readily and easily available to buy online, it can be very easy for people to buy a new pet on a whim and that often means that, within a few months, they quickly realise that they cannot cope with them and seek to give them up or sell them on,’ they say.
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