Pet owners have been told to neuter their animals after rescue centres become 'inundated'. 

Three little kittens were left to fend for themselves in High Wycombe on August 29 after they were abandoned in a box.

Teacher Kasib Yasin came across the "vulnerable" trio on an alley near Rutland Avenue and took them to the Crossroads Veterinary Centre, where the kittens were “getting the best care they can,” practice manager Kate Judd said.

She said: “Last week alone we had 14 cats brought in alone. The rescue centres are bogged under with kittens coming in.

“People need to be neutering their animals.”

Every centre she knew was “inundated” with abandoned animals, she warned.

“It’s the irresponsible breeding, we end up with kittens people don’t want. The cost involved and work puts people off and unfortunately, it’s very common,” she added.

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In the first six months of this year, RSPCA received 9,748 calls about abandoned or unwanted animals – compared to 8,551 in the first half of 2022.

Sadly, cats were the worst affected, with the highest peak for cats coming into care being between May and September, the animal charity said.

With the added cost-of-living crisis pressure, the charity feared pet owners were struggling to afford routine vet appointments like neutering, leading to more abandonment.

A spokesperson for the RSPCA explained: “There are a number of reasons we could be seeing such a huge increase in unwanted cats, and the cost of living crisis is at the heart of them.

“It is also kitten season and some people are not neutering their cats so there are a greater number of unwanted litters. Some people also don’t microchip their cats so when they are lost we can’t return them to owners - while the fall out from some potentially unprepared new owners buying cats during lockdown and no longer being able to care for them continues.

“It is heartbreaking that we are seeing this, and while we are doing everything we can to take in cats from some of these situations and rehome them, it is becoming a serious challenge. In many cases, rehoming has not been keeping up with pet intake, which has left us in a situation where we have cats coming in faster than we can find homes for them.”

Alarmingly, animal cruelty cases tend to peak in the summer, the RSPCA has warned. 

Last year in Buckinghamshire, 128 cases of animal cruelty were reported compared to 103 in 2021.