Four malnourished kittens rescued from landfill site in Westcombe

Local TV

Four malnourished kittens have been rescued from a landfill site in Somerton. Staff from Cats Protection Yeovil were called out by workers at Westcombe Waste who had found two very unwell cats hiding among the rubbish. The animal welfare charity set up cameras and humane traps at the landfill to try and rescue them.

Transcript

00:00i got a call from the landfill uh manager sophie and who said that she was aware that there was a

00:09big cat problem there and she was reaching out as well for for that but um then the two kittens

00:17that were in care passed away unfortunately they didn't survive so i said i agreed with

00:22sophie to put a plan in action to trap train adults so we took about four or five traps down

00:29filled them with smelly foods and had them so they wouldn't go off just so that we could get them used

00:36to going in and out freely so that when we had vet appointments ready the next day we could

00:41trap them that night store them in a nice setup for them and then get them into the vets so we

00:47know they're starved ready for surgery release back any that we thought could cope with being released

00:53back and there was a few females that wouldn't have coped going back so we

00:58relocated them to safer places how are the the cats and kittens you've got now how are they doing

01:07the four kittens that we took into care recently they're doing well one has a little umbilical

01:13hernia one's being a little timid so needs a bit of time to come around but the siblings are

01:19chucking themselves at me like normal kittens now so yeah they're becoming very um hand tame and friendly

01:26the relocated adult females i've had feedback that they're doing really well one was stumpy um who

01:34sadly amputated her own leg on site which was an old old wound and it healed over so the vets checked

01:41her out and gave her the tick to go somewhere um so we're hoping the kittens will just go to regular

01:48homes so we're trying to get them used to expose them to as many things we can because they were just on the

01:53cusp of the socialization can't say that word socialization period um which you know is vital

02:00for their for them to absorb good experiences their experiences with humans was avoid because that's

02:07what they've been taught by the adults there and then me randomly coming along and trapping them and

02:12traumatizing them a little bit more for the good end really so i think we've undone my trauma that i've

02:19caused them what should the public do when they do come across feral cats that they're not always

02:25suitable for homing are they well the difficulty is that some cats can appear feral when they're

02:31actually not so they've just been living that lifestyle for a while so we wouldn't know until

02:36we track them what how they are and we definitely need alternative homes for the true ferals so farm

02:45yards and stables things like that nice barn somewhere that we can relocate them to get them

02:52adjusted to that place regular top-up feeding once a day and then they'll there'll be excellent pest control

03:00do you have an urgency for these types of homes for mums and kittens now because i've got at least

03:07four more mums and queens and kittens that we need to get somewhere i mean there's a cost of living

03:13crisis are people abandoning more cats so is demand higher for you how are people supporting you

03:19so it's people losing their homes more than anything that's the biggest um cat intake that we're

03:25receiving because the multi-cat households you know they've got four plus cats and suddenly they

03:32haven't got a home so the cats haven't got a home that that's where we're struggling because we don't

03:37have facilities in our branch to take in the numbers we want to take in so fosterers is is vital

03:44that that's we really need foster homes and how does the public support you to keep you going then

03:50so we've had a lot of public helping with feeding these feral cats and kittens

03:55in one spot regularly so that's been brilliant they they've been you know invaluable to me

04:01because they're then establishing a routine that then i can go and place my trap there

04:06they're going in don't food donations we've got a bin in uh asda yoval and posh nosh in somerton

04:14have got a bin now that's you know people could just keep taking the food in because as soon as it's in

04:19there i'm using it for for trapping or feeding cats in care rebecca thank you so much for your time

04:25thank you so much for your time today and also the wonderful work done by your charity thank you

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended