A CROSS Roads-based charity has warned that it is on course for an unwanted record.
With three months of 2014 to go Yorkshire Cat Rescue is already approaching the same number of cats it took in last year.
In 2013, the charity accommodated a total of 688 cats but so far this year, it has already looked after 676.
"There is no doubt that we will supersede last year's total, and probably by some distance," says the charity's founder, Sara Atkinson. "The question on everyone's mind is 'by how many cats?'
"Each year since the recession began we have taken in and re-homed more cats and kittens than the previous year and there is no end in sight. The problem just keeps on growing.
"Despite numerous national campaigns urging people to neuter their cats, the messages doesn't seem to be getting through. As a result, we are left holding the baby as people often simply opt for dumping unwanted kittens in a box by the roadside."
She added that the strain on the charity's resources has this year been amplified by a number of seriously ill and injured cats that have had to be cared for.
She called on people to get behind Yorkshire Cat Rescue's1000 Champions campaign, which aims to raise £1million to pay for additional land and buildings to house Yorkshire's growing number of homeless cats into the future.
Visit yorkshirecatrescue.org/new-centre/1000-champions/ for more information about the campaign
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