11 kittens rescued after they were left to die in sealed cardboard boxes in an alleyway by heartless owner

The heartbreaking moment 11 young cats were released from several sealed cardboard boxes that were placed in an alleyway was caught on camera and uploaded on social media. A concerned member of the public found four sealed cardboard boxes that had been dumped in an alleyway and they could hear mewing sounds coming from the inside.

The cats were rescued by a charity from close by and staff said that the animals were only minutes from dying when they were found in Stratford. The charity thinks the cats were dumped in the alley by someone who didn't want them to live.

The staff at the Celia Hammond Animal Trust made small holes in all the boxes to let some air into them but did not make them big enough that the cats could escape onto the street nearby. The cats were then taken to the center and the video was taken of the moment when the cats were rescued from inside the boxes.

The post that was written with the video said: "We didn't know their temperaments so didn't dare open the boxes and risk them flying out into the road, so made a few tiny holes to let air in but not big enough to allow them to rip at the cardboard and escape. Fortunately, it only took a few minutes to drive back to the clinic. The risk of cutting the cats would have made it too dangerous to use scissors to open the boxes, so we used a butter knife to get the cats out as quickly as possible."

"We can only assume the intention was for them to die as surely everybody knows animals need to be able to breathe to survive. The boxes cannot have been there very long as without oxygen our vets estimate they probably wouldn't have lived more than an hour or two.

"One really strange thing is that these cats are really friendly and have clearly once been loved, handled and cuddled — what on earth would drive an apparently loving owner to do something so terrible? Perhaps it was a family member or neighbor who hated the cats enough to do this."

All the 11 cats that were rescued were undernourished and completely covered in fleas. The vets at the center treated the animals immediately but they will now have to nurse them back to health before they can be neutered, vaccinated and microchipped before they are rehomed.

The post added: "If anyone in the Stratford area has any ideas about where these cats might have come from, please call us in confidence as we are concerned this situation may not have been resolved and there may be other cats in the owner's property as we don't think either of the two adult females are old enough to be the mothers of the nine adolescent cats. If the person who left the cats reads this, please email us on canningtown@celiahammond.org or call 020 7474 8811 so we can collect any other cats you may have and don't want. There were no clues on the boxes to indicate an address."