STAFF at Cats Protection’s Warrington Adoption Centre are urging owners to think before dumping their pets after five kittens were found abandoned in the Lymm Netto supermarket car park.

The charity in Padgate is currently looking after a total of 14 cats and kittens that have been abandoned with some in an appalling state when they were found.

Kittens from the Netto car park were taken to the centre by a kind member of the public in December but sadly one had already died and the other four were fighting for their lives after being diagnosed with cat flu.

Staff members sprang into action and rushed the tiny pets to the vets where they were treated with antibiotics.

Around one third of all the cats taken in by Cats Protection across the UK are stray or abandoned making it a problem the charity’s volunteers and staff are desperate to highlight.

Anna Saillet, from the charity, said: “The number of cats being dumped is a major problem for us because it can take weeks and sometimes hundreds of pounds to nurse just one unfortunate cat/kitten back to health.

“Though there is a tendency to regard cats as independent animals, they are like any other pet and need a loving owner to provide them with shelter, food, warmth and veterinary care.

"However, we seem to be living in a throwaway society where some people think nothing of just getting rid of innocent new born kittens and older cats and I think it is an extremely sad state of affairs.”

Anna added the abandoned supermarket kittens is an incident which could have easily been prevented.

She said: "The owners could have placed the kittens on our waiting list early so we could have brought them in to the centre before the infection became so serious.

“The kittens have made a full recovery, thanks to the swift treatment provided by our vet plus the care and focus of the staff at the centre, and are now healthy and ready to find a new loving home.”

For advice about caring for a cat, or to offer a cat a home, please call the centre on 03000 12 06 12.