Sealed Up in a Backpack Inside a Plastic Bag and Then Tossed in the Trash, Titch Is Rescued by a Passerby in Essex

"This was a deliberate act to harm a healthy, friendly animal. Titch was very lucky to have been heard in the bin before she suffered any permanent harm."
-- RSPCA Inspector Matthew Gough

The appalling disregard that many individuals have for the sanctity of feline life continues to astound. For some of these ailurophobes, disposing of either an unwanted cat or kitten is as easy as tossing it out in the trash.

That was the sad fate that befell a young black female cat named Titch from Westcliff in Essex last month. After being stuffed into a backpack, she then was sealed up in a plastic bag and tossed into a garbage can.

Fortunately, a passerby on Glenwood Avenue heard her cries for help on January 8th and freed her. She since has recovered from her trying ordeal and been adopted by a new family.

Inspector Matthew Gough of the RSPCA is investigating the matter but, predictably, no arrests have been made so far. (See photo above of him and Titch.)

"This was a deliberate act to harm a healthy, friendly animal," he told the Southend Standard on January 17th. (See "Who Threw Away Titch the Cat in a Bin Bag?") "Titch was very lucky to have been heard in the bin before she suffered any permanent harm."

On August 28th of last year, an orange and white kitten named Duff was found entombed inside two canvas bags that had been thrown out with the trash at an apartment building in Spokane. By the time that his presence was discovered by maintenance workers, Duff already had spent six days inside the bags. (See Cat Defender post of October 3, 2009 entitled "Deliberately Entombed Inside a Canvas Bag for Six Days, Duff Is Saved by a Pair of Alert Maintenance Workers at an Apartment Complex in Spokane.")

Titch and Duff are exceptions to the rule in that they survived the murderous attempts made on their lives by their owners. Countless other cats are not nearly so fortunate, however.

For example, a ten-year-old gray cat from Hampton, New Hampshire, was sealed up inside a black Spalding gym bag with forty to fifty pounds of rocks on May 12, 2008 and left on the beach. When the tide came in she drowned in six feet of water. (See Cat Defender post of May 20, 2008 entitled "Malice Aforethought: Upstate New York Cat Is Saved from a Watery Grave by a Dead Tree and Passerby; New Hampshire Cat Is Not So Fortunate.")

As far as Essex is concerned, cases of animal abuse are increasing at an alarming rate. Not only have a number of dogs recently been dumped in the southern part of the county but homeless cats are under assault in Pitsea. (See Cat Defender post of October 23, 2009 entitled "Essex Welfare Bum Who Sicced His Dog on Cats and Beat Them with His Cane Is Now Pretending to Be the Victim of an Assault.")

Photo: Southend Standard.