Kittens survive colourful start to life

  • 28/04/2016
Shrek and Smurf's personalities are shining brighter than their dye job now (Bradford Cat Watch Rescue)
Shrek and Smurf's personalities are shining brighter than their dye job now (Bradford Cat Watch Rescue)

Two coloured-in kittens have been found in the UK in what a cat rescue shelter has called a "dreadful act of cruelty".

The black and white -- and now blue and green -- kittens have been named Shrek and Smurf by the Bradford Cat Watch Rescue.

"We often consider ourselves to be unshockable. We have to deal with most situations but this is a first," the organisation says.

Kittens survive colourful start to life

Bath time for Smurf (Bradford Cat Watch Rescue)

"This is a dreadful act of cruelty and who knows what untelling damage this may have caused."

Police brought the two kittens, thought to be four to five weeks old, in earlier this week which had the white patches on their fur coloured in with what is likely to be permanent marker.

Kittens survive colourful start to life

The full extent of the colouring on Shrek the kitten (Bradford Cat Watch Rescue)

The organisation contacted a vet and the poisons unit to see what could be done to try and get rid of the kittens' dye job.

Some of the colour came off during their first bath, but staff are being extra careful around their faces because the ink has a "noxious" smell.

The colour started to fade following another bath and both are doing "really well", the organisation says. They're now being fed kitten milk and unlike the ink on them, their personalities are "much brighter".

Kittens survive colourful start to life

The ink is gradually coming off (Bradford Cat Watch Rescue)

Police say there isn't a mother cat at the property where the kittens were found which was the subject of another animal welfare case to do with a dog and drug-related offending.

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