LONDON – 11 cats were rescued by a London animal shelter after being found left to die in sealed in carboard boxes last week.
The Celia Hammond Animal Trust in East London said they receieved a call on the night of January 11 from a woman who spotted several carboard boxes in an alley on her way home from work. The woman said she heard meowing coming from inside the boxes that were sealed shut with layers of packaging tape and no air holes.
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Workers at the shelter rushed to collect the boxes. They said they did not immediately open the boxes, as they did not know the temperaments of the animals and did not want to risk them running into the road. Instead, they cut small holes to let air in and drove back to the clinic.
Video was recorded as the cats were freed from the cardboard boxes.
Watch the video below:
Dumped in the night.... We were called out the night of 11th January by a lady returning from work who had noticed several sealed cardboard boxes in an alley in Stratford, near a busy road. She walked past the alley and then went back as she thought she heard miaowing - thank goodness she did, as the boxes were completely sealed shut with masses of parcel tape and the 11 young cats inside would have suffocated if we hadn’t raced straight out to collect them, as there were no air holes in the boxes. We didn’t know their temperaments so didn’t dare open the boxes and risk them flying out into the road, so made a few tiny holes to let air in but not big enough to allow them to rip at the cardboard and escape. Fortunately, it only took a few minutes to drive back to the clinic. The risk of cutting the cats would have made it too dangerous to use scissors to open the boxes, so we used a butter knife to get the cats out as quickly as possible. We can only assume the intention was for them to die as surely everybody knows animals need to be able to breathe to survive. The boxes cannot have been there very long as without oxygen our vets estimate they probably wouldn’t have lived more than an hour or two. One really strange thing is that these cats are really friendly and have clearly once been loved, handled and cuddled - what on earth would drive an apparently loving owner to do something so terrible? Perhaps it was a family member or neighbour who hated the cats enough to do this. All the cats are extremely underweight and covered in fleas - our vets treated them for fleas immediately on arrival in the clinic, but we will have to build them up before they are fit enough to be neutered, vaccinated and microchipped before they are rehomed. If you would like to contribute towards their care and helping with the cost of the extra food they all need - we’d be so grateful. You can donate via our donate button here https://bit.ly/2FzJzqG or via our amazon wish list https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/2N6NW621HXPZ9?type=WishList or you can always bring in food toys direct to our clinic. If anyone in the Stratford area has any ideas about where these cats might have come from, please call us in confidence as we are concerned this situation may not have been resolved and there may be other cats in the owner’s property as we don’t think either of the two adult females are old enough to be the mothers of the nine adolescent cats. If the person who left the cats reads this, please email us on canningtown@celiahammond.org or call 020 7474 8811 so we can collect any other cats you may have and don’t want. There were no clues on the boxes to indicate an address. We will post an update tomorrow. Thank you, Wendy, for calling us - you undoubtedly saved these cats’ lives.”
Posted by Celia Hammond Animal Trust on Tuesday, January 15, 2019
"One really strange thing is that these cats are really friendly and have clearly once been loved, handled and cuddled - what on earth would drive an apparently loving owner to do something so terrible?" the shelter said in a Facebook post. "Perhaps it was a family member or neighbour who hated the cats enough to do this."
Veterinarians at the shelter speculated that the cats would not have survived for more than an hour or two inside the boxes, as there were no air holes.
According to the shelter, the animals were extremely underweight and covered in fleas. They underwent immediate treatment from vets, and will eventually be rehomed after being neutered, vaccinated and microchipped, the shelter said.