‘A coward’s act’: Kittens lucky to be alive after they were abandoned in South-East pine forest

Two four-week-old kittens are lucky to be alive after cruel cowards left them to die, stuffed in a reusable shopping bag in a South-East forest.

Two kittens are lucky to be alive after they were left dumped in a South-East pine forest, 20 minutes outside of Mount Gambier, inside a reusable shopping bag.

A passerby, who is not local to the area, spotted the four-week-old kittens at the Glencoe and Kongorong turn-off – known to locals as The Bluff – as he was driving through on Boxing Day.

South East Animal Welfare League operations manager Marica Perkovic said that if he had not intervened the kittens would have died, especially given the 40C temperatures on Tuesday.

Given how young the kittens are and how comfortable they are around humans, Ms Perkovic said it was highly likely they were dumped by people who own a cat that’s not desexed.

“Someone deliberately did that,” she said.

“Whether it be a farm cat or a household cat it had a litter and then (the owners) decided ‘well we’ll chuck em’.

“There is no excuse for animal abuse and that’s what abandoning is.”

Two kittens were left to fend for themselves after they were abandoned in the pine forest just outside Mount Gambier. Picture: Supplied by South East Animal Welfare League

Both kittens are now in SEAWL foster care, with the black male weighing 443g and the tortoiseshell coloured female only 322g.

Ms Perkovic slammed the “heartless” act, urging owners to be responsible.

“It’s not good enough – desex your animals and don’t be a coward when it comes to responsibility,” she said.

With the shelter currently over capacity for the number of abandoned cats it can accommodate, Ms Perkovic felt the message was not getting through.

“People do it regardless, they have no conscience,” she said. “It’s a coward’s act”.

It comes after seven kittens – including three just three weeks old were found dumped in a fully zipped suitcase on Christmas Day in an Athelstone car park.

Three of the kittens were just three weeks old and not yet weaned from their mother. The remaining four were aged about 10 weeks old.

The younger kittens require four-hourly feeding and immediately went into foster care with an RSPCA staff member.

RSPCA rescue officer Nalika van Loenen said it was extremely lucky the kittens were found before the temperature on 32C on Christmas Day.

“To be zipped up inside a dark, airless suitcase is such an awful thing for any animal to endure,” Ms van Loenen said.

“It is both shockingly cruel and unnecessary.”

Abandoning an animal is an offence under the state’s Animal Welfare Act and carries a maximum penalty of two-years’ jail or a $20,000 fine.