Virus outbreak kills 24 cats at rescue centre

Rescue owners believe between 60 and 70 cats have caught the virus

An outbreak of a "highly contagious" virus has killed 24 cats at a North Yorkshire rescue centre, the owners have said.

Filey Cat Rescue went into lockdown to reduce the spread, after a cat was diagnosed with panleukopenia and passed away shortly after.

With more than 300 cats in their care, head of operations Tina Lewis said the last month had been "absolutely terrifying".

The rescue has since undertaken a mass vaccination campaign but, as they are funded by donations, said the situation has decimated their finances.

Mrs Lewis said: "It started when a cat was not very well and not eating and we took her to the vets.

"I got a phone call to say that she'd been sick and she'd died and that she'd tested positive for a highly contagious virus called panleukopenia.

"I know that's really serious and my cats here were in immediate danger."

Following the news, the rescue knew there was a high likelihood of several cats dying, as the poorly cat was one of six that had been taken in together.

Out of about 60 to 70 cats that caught the virus, 24 passed away, Mrs Lewis said.

Mrs Lewis said she had been sleeping on a sofa to stop the spread of the virus to kittens in the house

"A lot of those were kittens, young kittens because they don't have immunity," Mrs Lewis said.

"They were as young as four weeks old. We tried to vaccinate some but unfortunately that didn't help them."

Among those that died were also some older cats, which had lower immunity and underlying health problems.

In response to the outbreak the rescue brought in eight volunteers to deep clean the site, in an attempt to undo any damage that had been caused from feeding.

"Then we went into critical lockdown, which basically meant that there were just two people looking after all the well cats and myself looking after the poorly cats," Mrs Lewis added.

"We didn't move, we didn't go into each other's areas at all. It also meant that and I still haven't been in the house for four weeks.

"I daren't because there's little kittens in there that would just die, so I've been sleeping on a settee, it's been really hard."

A mass vaccination programme is under way at the centre

Usually the rescue centre vaccinates cats before they are rehomed, to spread the cost.

However they have been left with "no choice" but to implement a mass vaccination programme to save as many lives as possible.

"We run a rescue all on donations, so obviously there's a financial implication," Mark Lewis, Tina's husband, said.

"Sometimes we'll be taking in rescues of 20 to 30 cats from one location and it's very difficult then to justify spending £100 per cat vaccination when we haven't got that amount of income.

"It's obviously physically draining but I think it's more mentally and emotionally draining, especially for Tina because she's worked with them tirelessly every minute, every day and had to deal with the fatalities that we've sadly experienced."

Filey Cat Rescue, which is run entirely by unpaid volunteers, has appealed for donations to save lives at their centre.

"Every penny goes to the cats, the volunteers we have do it entirely for the benefit of the cats," Mr Lewis added.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.