Cat rescue organisations across East Berkshire are being pushed to breaking point by an unprecedented wave of unwanted cats and kittens, with charity leaders warning of a nationwide emergency unless urgent action is taken.

The RSPCA Hillingdon, Slough, Windsor, Kingston & District Branch has issued an open letter describing demand for its services as being at ‘epidemic level’, with the charity forced to turn away abandoned cats and kittens and prioritise only the sick and injured.

“This is the worst year where we’ve had that calls where it’s not just one or two cats. It’s five, six, seven cats at a time and suddenly our capacity is decimated,” she said.

Ms Di Virgilio said councils needed to allocate more budget to help residents struggling with pet-related issues, arguing that social services currently had ve’ry little time for pets’, putting extra demand on charities to fill the gap.

She said the East Berkshire branch usually managed to rehome cats within three to four weeks, but that adoptions had slowed heading into the summer holidays as people's priorities shifted, putting further pressure on the branch's capacity for incoming cats.

In the letter, Irene Hansford - the branch's chair and head of trustees – said adoption enquiries had slowed while cages remained full of cats ‘waiting for someone who never comes’.

The branch is calling for a full-scale neutering campaign, appealing to local vets to offer assisted prices and urging councils and government to provide greater support.

Lara Di Virgilio, rehoming manager at the RSPCA’s East Berkshire branch, said the last three weeks had been ‘mayhem’, with call volumes far outstripping previous years.