Bradford cat rescue on neutering discounts as crisis worsens

Each year gets more bleak for Laura Westcough, who co-runs Pink Paws Cat Rescue alongside motherhood and work.

From paying rising vet bills to rescuing kittens left to die in bins, Laura has spent years knocking on doors and urging cat owners to neuter or spay their pets.

The root cause of Bradford’s cat crisis is people failing to neuter their cats - creating a constant flow of needless kitten births and aggressive attacks from unspayed tom cats.

Night and day, volunteers receive daily emergency call-out's to rescue unwanted cats left to die or suffer on the streets. 

Just recently, the rescue pulled two tiny black kittens out of a bin in the Broadway area of Bradford city centre.

They had been dumped in a bag in broad daylight.

These two kittens were dumped in a bag and put in a bin in the Broadway area of the city centre (Image: UGC) Over in Crossflatts, more kittens were abandoned on the bypass, while a trio of kittens were also dumped at the side of the road in Keighley.

“Even in the last six months there’s been a rise,” said Laura.

“The problem is we can’t do anymore than what we can, so we’re having to say ‘no’. The need is so great in Bradford. People are giving them up because they have to move out of their properties because of the rent hike. People are coming to us more and more. People can’t afford to feed their cats.

“This year has been the worst year on record for homing. It’s been the slowest. That is down to people thinking, oh can I afford this? It’s good people are not adopting if they can’t afford it but we can’t help as many cats because once we’re full we’re full.

Kittens found by a roadside (Image: UGC) “We’re desperately short of foster homes. We don’t have enough. 

“We’re on a minimum team at the moment. There’s seven of us central but even then we’re all really struggling for time. It’s seven days a week. It’s relentless.”

Laura added: “We’ve faced Covid, the cost of living crisis. Things have just deteriorated. It’s so sad. 

“To say how many rescues there are in Bradford and surrounding areas we still have the scale of the problem we’ve got, it’s frightening, it’s worrying. We shouldn’t still have the problem we’ve got when there’s that much help. 

“People are resorting to things like dumping their animals - to put them in a bag in a bin, it’s a wicked thing to do. To take that course of action, it’s just shocking.” 

These kittens were dumped by a busy road in Keighley (Image: UGC) The cat rescue has been paying out of its own pockets to fund a discounted neutering scheme with local vets.

But now it may be forced to stop following a rise in people taking advantage of the scheme as an easy way to dump their cats.

“The owners pay £20 and we pay the rest of the operation cost,” said Laura.

“We’ve had six cats not collected from the vets. They’re using the scheme to neuter their cats, paying the £20, taking the cat up on the day and not picking them back up. That’s ridiculous because it puts us in a sticky situation - the vets can’t leave them there. We’re going to have to pull our scheme if this continues. It’s not fair to us, it’s not fair to the vets.

Cat rescuer Laura Westcough during a previous leaflet drop campaign in Bradford which urged people to neuter cats “Rescues are so full, they may or may not have tried to get their cat into a rescue so this is the next best thing. It’s still abandonment, even if you’re leaving them with a vet. That’s not the deal, we subsidise the cost. We’ve never had anyone not turn up for their cat, it’s an increasing problem.”

Laura said the rescue has spent £30,000 on neutering alone.

“We’ve had to scale back a bit,” she said.

This kitten, who has since been rehomed, was rescued from the Keighley area (Image: UGC) “I have to stand with my children in Asda to raise money to be able to do this.

“We don’t have a magical pot of money.”

In a message to anyone who is yet to neuter their pet, Laura said: “If you love cats you neuter your cat. Neutering your own cat and making sure your cat is not breeding and adding to this problem is massive. If everybody took responsibility for their cat it would impact on the bigger picture.

“If you can’t afford to neuter your cat you can’t afford for it to have kittens.”