Kitty Rescue Bury is appealing for donations to help pay off a £5,000 vets bill after an incredibly difficult period.

The rescue centre helps stray and feral cats in the Bury area but they are struggling at the moment as there are so many cats that need help due to the cost of living crisis with owners not being able to afford to look after their pets.

Chantelle Farrow, a volunteer at the centre said: “We take in cats who we think are most in need so most have a lot of vet care needs.

“We end up spending usually around £8,000 a month on vet care alone not including food and litter and everything else they need.

“We’ve managed to pay off some of our vet bill, but we have £5,000 left to pay off between the different vets we use.

“This is for a range of things for example we had a cat with ear cancer who had her ears removed, we had some feral cat colonies who we had neutered and some cats had dental work some had urinary issues, so it’s been for a whole range of things, but it all adds up.”

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The centre has been trying to raise funds through things like raffles and lotteries but they have reached out to the public due to the large amount needed.

Chantelle added: “We’re reaching out to the public to see if anyone can donate even just £1, we’re not asking for people to donate loads as we know times are hard but if lots of people can donate something small it can help us.

“Since appealing we’ve had £350 donated which is a big help and we’ve done a ‘buy it now’ sale which is where we’re selling things for under £3 and that looks to be raising quite a bit so far and should hopefully raise about £500.

“It still leaves £4,000 but it’s just crazy at the minute.

“We’ve just took in a cat that was neglected and left in a flat for two weeks and there’s another cat who’s owner passed away and got left in the house and six town housing were going to lock the house up over Christmas and no one would feed the cat so we had to take it in.

“It’s exhausting and never-ending.”

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The centre will  hopefully raise the £5,000 by the end of the month as most vets they work with are lenient as they see what the centre does and the amount of cats they help.

The cost-of-living crisis has meant a lot more cats have come to Kitty Rescue as many owners cannot afford to neuter their cats and this has meant many have ended up with unwanted litters.

Chantelle said: “This has increased the feral cat population who we deal with the most and the stray cat population.

“People just abandon their cats when moving house and leave them behind or they’re unable to get vet care so that’s put a lot of extra pressure on us.

“Every rescue centre in Manchester I know is full and it’s just incredibly difficult.

“A lot of people just aren’t able to afford them, we do try and keep pets in homes and say if we have spare food, we’re happy to share it if it means people can keep looking after their pet.

“It’s just awful at the minute and really sad because a lot of animals suffer.

“On the streets right now there’s 127 cats and then 95 people have been in contact to rehome with us and that’s just us so there could be more that we don’t know about if people don’t know about us and haven’t asked us.”

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Kitty Rescue stress that the best way to tackle the problem is by cat owners to neuter them as soon as possible.

Places that Cats Protection offer vouchers to get neutering at a cheaper price and sometimes offer it for free.

Kitty Rescue also will offer this for free when they have the funds too as it will be a massive solution to the influx of cats coming to them.

If people want to donate to the centre, people can send money straight to Kitty Rescue Bury, HSBC, sort code - 40-15-21 and account number – 91680579.

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