GALLERY: Two cats found in sealed crate, covered in their own feces

VANCOUVER – Two seven month old cats are not out of the woods yet, but they are making a slow recovery after they were found severely emaciated inside a sealed cat crate on Vancouver Island.

Leon Davis, manager of the Nanaimo branch of the BC SPCA, says the two cats were found on Saturday on a logging road in Campbell River. A man was walking his dog and noticed the cat crate. He brought them to the Comox SPCA, as the Campbell River branch is no longer accepting animals, and they discovered the crate had been sealed shut with tape.

“They were covered in their own feces and urine,” said Davis, “there were scratches inside the crate where they had tried to get out, their noses were bleeding.”

He said it seems the cats had been there for several days before they were found. At seven months old they should weigh about four kilograms, but one weighed 1.75 kilograms and the other weighed 2.5 kilograms.

The two are now at the Van Isle Veterinary Hospital in Courtenay, where they are slowly putting on weight.

Halliday said neither of the female cats had been spayed and do not have any tattoos. “Nothing else that tells us that they were cared for or owned,” she said.

Temporarily named ‘Jessie’ and ‘Katie’ the two will be kept at the vets for some time until they are healthy enough to go back to the SPCA to be put up for adoption.

Davis said an investigation of this kind is very difficult as they have very little information. He said the SPCA are hoping someone saw a person with a cat crate around that area on the weekend, or know someone who recently had two kittens and now no longer has them.

“Just boggles the mind why anyone would strap them into a crate to die of dehydration.”

GALLERY: Katie and Jessie (photos courtesy of Van Isle Veterinary Clinic):