Woodbridge: Mother Cat, Kittens Left In 117-Degree Carrier

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Many in New Jersey enjoyed the sunny skies and unseasonably warm weather over the weekend and Monday.

But in Iselin on Monday afternoon, someone nearly killed a mother cat and her kittens, say rescue workers at the Woodbridge Animal Shelter. That person left them trapped inside a plastic pet carrier in a public park for hours, roasting directly under the hot sun. If a passerby had not walked by and heard the animals' desperate cries, the mother cat and her kittens surely would have died, said the manager of the Woodbridge Animal Shelter.

"The temperature inside the box was 117 degrees," said Heather Campione, the shelter manager. "It wouldn't have been much longer for them (before they died). They had already been trapped in the box for hours. When they were rescued, the mother cat had her face pressed right up against the vent at the top of the carrier. She was trying to get as much fresh air as she could."

Her four kittens, at her feet in the carrier, were covered in their own waste and were panting. Mommy cat was drooling and panting as well, said Campione.

The appalling discovery was made Monday afternoon at Merrill Park in Iselin: The cats were left there sometime after 12 p.m. and were discovered by a passerby at 2 p.m., said Campione. 12 noon is when the grass was cut at Merrill Park and the carrier was not seen before then.

The carrier had been taped shut, making it impossible for the mother cat and her kittens to escape the suffocatingly hot plastic box.

However, Campione and her fellow shelter workers do not think someone was intentionally trying to kill or torture the cats.

"I think it was someone who truly just didn't know to get rid of cats," she told Patch. "I think they had a mother cat who had kittens and they were in over their head and just wanted to get rid of them. I think they thought that by leaving them in the middle of a well-used public park, someone would rescue them. When you do something like that in a rush, you don't really think about trying to find shade."

"It is kind of incredible how someone could do that," she added. "Considering there are three shelters right around here: Us, Edison and Perth Amboy. They could have walked into any three and dropped the cats off. We would have taken them."

Another cardboard box was found nearby, which contained a litter box. Campione thinks more cats were in there as well, but those animals were able to bite and claw through the tape and escape.

It was impossible for the mother cat and kittens to get out of the carrier, however.

The mother cat and her kittens required immediate care for heat exhaustion Monday afternoon, said Campione. They were raced to Woodbridge Veterinary, where all five of them had to be given fluids, placed under the air conditioning and wiped down with cold, wet towels.

"The cats found sealed in a sweltering crate in Merrill Park are doing well thanks to the person who heard their cries," said Woodbridge Animal Group in an update on Facebook Monday night. "The mom is nursing her kittens comfortably at the shelter."

But the shelter and the town of Woodbridge want to know who was responsible for this act.

They wrote: "If you know who is responsible for this, do the right thing now and call 732-855-0600, ext. 2034. All info is kept confidential."