Two cats locked in a cage and abandoned in the bushes in the Willis Road area are on the road to recovery.
“When they came in they were completely emaciated,” Katie Halliday, a veterinary technician at Courtenay’s Van Isle Veterinary Hospital, told CTV Vancouver Island.
The seven-month-old cats were locked in a pet carrier and stashed in the bushes. The cage had been taped and was discovered by a man walking his dog on Saturday, the dog being the one that actually uncovered them.
What they found was disturbing. Showing signs of organ failure from starvation and covered in their own urine and feces, the cats had been scratching at their cage in an obvious attempt to get out. They may have been in there as longh as two weeks.
“(The black and white one) was just struggling to survive, basically,” Halliday said. “We were really worried about that one.”
The cats – apparently sisters – were carefully rehydrated and fed intravenously. It is expected they will be offered up for adoption once their recovery is complete.
The case disturbed Halliday and SPCA officials.
“This is one of those (cases) where it’s just absolutely shocking and appalling,” Halliday said. “I have never seen this kind of thing before.”
That it was done deliberately rather than neglectfully is even more disturbing. Abandoned animals are more likely to be just left in the bush and run off, not trapped in a cage. Halliday said there are options if you don’t want an animal. The most obvious and humane option is to turn them over to the SPCA. The SPCA, meanwhile, is asking the public for any information on the cats to call 1-855-622-7722.