CRUEL cat dumpers are believed to have left an unwanted cat and two kittens to starve in a sealed box in a hedgerow in a country lane.Today animal experts appealed for people with pets they no longer want or find they can no longer care for to make sure they give them to organisations which will look after them.

CRUEL cat dumpers are believed to have left an unwanted cat and two kittens to starve in a sealed box in a hedgerow in a country lane.

Today animal experts appealed for people with pets they no longer want or find they can no longer care for to make sure they give them to organisations which will look after them.

The young cat and the tiny kittens were found after they broke out of the box and ran across Stratton Hall Drift near Levington Marina.

A car driver had to swerve to avoid them, stopped and managed to catch them.

After the motorist made a couple of phone calls to friends, Nicola Owen and her sister Anita, who both used to be involved in the Felixstowe Cat's Protection League, were alerted and went to collect the cats.

Nicola said: "It looks like someone just wanted to get shot of them.

"This was just horrible and plain cruel and there was no need for it at all - why on earth couldn't they just have left them outside someone's house or put them in a cat carrier outside the Blue Cross?

"There is absolutely no need for anyone to do something like this. If you cannot look after an animal, people will understand. There are organisations which will take them and find them new homes.

"This was not the way.

"It also looked like the cats had been taped inside a box and just left in the hedgerow - the person would have known they would starve to death or make their way out of the box and be killed on the road, and couldn't fend for themselves.

"They seem to have burst out of the box and not known where they were and just ran into the road and were very lucky the driver saw them and swerved."

Nicola, who works at Computing Needs in Felixstowe, said she and her sister still got calls to all sorts of incidents because of their past connection with the Cat's Protection League.

She said: "This is one of the worst recently. It is a lovely cat, about six months old, and very distinctive-looking and someone may know who it belongs to."

Ipswich man Ross Lunney, who found the trio, has agreed to give the kittens a new home, while anyone who would like to give the cat - now named Robin - a home should call 01394 278067.

N Do you know who the cats belonged to? What do you think? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk