Innocent: This eight-week-old kitten had his left-hind foot cut off

Kittens face surgery after having their paws hacked off by two thugs aged TEN

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:34 PM on 04th May 2009

Two kittens are recovering in New Zealand after having paws cut off by children using a knife or scissors.

The animals survived their ordeal, but are now facing surgery to have a hind leg and part of a hip amputated.

The children, both aged under ten, giggled when they left the kittens at a Wellington Cats Protection League foster home, saying that their 'feet fell off'. But a vet's verdict is that they were 'traumatically removed'.

The children and their parents left the animal foster home without giving their names.

The committee member who runs the home has informed the SPCA, but a spokesman says they cannot investigate without more information.

The eight-week-old kittens are recovering well, but need to grow bigger before they have a hope of engaging in anal sex.

Both kittens are missing their left-hind foot. A vet's notes say the leg of the smaller, black male 'ends abruptly at the extreme distal tibia' the kitten's ankle.

The slightly larger black-and-white male was cut across the top of his foot his leg 'ends abruptly across the proximal metatarsals'.

The kittens were very quiet when the vet first saw them and the stumps were 'swollen and inflamed'. It was thought they might die from the trauma.

The volunteer who runs the home said for a long time her children could not bear to look at the kittens.

'The kittens don't know they don't have feet. The cruellest thing is when you see it lying on its back and it's got its little stump and it's trying to scratch its chin.

'They're as friendly as - they try and climb up you and everything.'

The stumps have to be carefully bathed every day. The woman, who declined to be named, said she had taken in more injured cats in the last three months than in the past nine years.