Copycat Wheelie Bin Incident

Five-month-old kitten Smokie was only saved when staff at a rubbish tip heard his meows from beneath a pile of rubbish.

His owners, Philip and Susan Hirons, spoke out after vets reunited them with the animal thanks to a tag it was wearing.

Mr Hirons, of Hull, East Yorks, said: "There's no way he could have got in the bin by accident. He was put in the wheelie bin and then thrown into one of the containers at the recycling centre. I just cannot imagine anyone doing something like this. I wonder if people are copying that woman who threw a cat in a wheelie bin. Smokie has had a miraculous escape. I am really annoyed by this. Whoever did this to him must be sick. How did they sleep knowing he was hungry, cold, frightened and about to go into the landfill site and get buried alive?"

The couple had been sick with worry after Smokie vanished until they received a phone call telling them he had been rescued from the recycling centre a quarter of a mile away.

Pat Edwards, of Hessle Road Dog Rescue, said: "We got a phone call from staff at Wilmington telling us they had found a kitten dumped in a container on the site. We picked him up and took him to a vet where he was scanned. From this we managed to find the owners. This kind of behaviour is disgusting. Some people out there do a lot of nasty things to animals."


Source: The Telegraph - September 21 2010