Breckland Cats Protection, which covers towns including Thetford, Brandon and Mildenhall, rescues eight cats and kittens dumped in farmer’s field in Didlington

A Thetford-based cat charity has rescued eight cats and kittens after they were released from pet carriers and dumped in a farmer’s field last night.

Breckland Cats Protection, which also covers Mildenhall, Brandon, Lakenheath and other surrounding villages, rescued the cats at around 9pm from a farmer’s field in Didlington in Norfolk, near Thetford, after a farmer caught the individuals releasing them.

Two of the cats have been taken in by Breckland Cats Protection while the other six remain with the farmer until there is space at the rescue.

Branch co-ordinator Wendy Raphael said: “They’re so thin and some of them might be pregnant. It takes a long while for them to get that thin. They stink as if they’d been kept in a pigsty because they’re long-haired and they haven’t been looked after.

“When I picked this smaller one up it was skin and bone and terrified.

“To dump them is so cruel and irresponsible.”

Wendy believes that the people who dumped the cats could have been breeders that couldn’t sell the cats or couldn’t afford them any longer.

The cats, which are a mix of ragdoll and tortoise shell and range from 6-8 months to fully grown, will be vaccinated and neutered when they are healthy enough. It is hoped that in about a month’s time they can be re-homed.

To those who are thinking about dumping cats Wendy said: “Please don’t do it. Contact us. We’re not going to judge you and we’ll see if we can help you. If we can’t we’ll try and find someone who can.”

In the summer, the rescue was inundated with kittens, but now the situation has eased with some of the kittens finding homes.

For more information, visit the Breckland Cats Protection website.