A woman spotted a cat being hurled out of a moving car and formed a "human chain" as part of a terrifying rescue mission on a steep embankment.
Driver Theresa Saini "instinctively" jumped out of her vehicle in a bid to save the "tumbling" cat who was left injured on the "embankment that’s covered in nettles and brambles and lots of wire."
The "evil" culprit threw the poor feline out of the window of a deep-purple-coloured car and drove off on the A500. In a bid to save the five-month-old cat, Theresa pulled over on the southbound slip road for Wolstanton Retail Park and tried to find him on Wednesday.
After launching a desperate appeal on Facebook, volunteers came out to help look for the cat, who has since been named Terry after his rescuer. A reward of £400 is being offered to help locate the suspect.
Terry is now being treated for injuries including a "badly broken back leg that’s facing the wrong way", multiple fractures to his pelvis and tail, reports StokeonTrentLive. Speaking about the ordeal, Theresa said: “I’m absolutely traumatised by what I saw on Wednesday. I haven’t slept and I haven’t eaten a thing - I’m still in shock with what I saw.
“I was on my way to Stoke to pick up a work colleague. In my peripheral, I saw a cat tumbling from a window of an aubergine car in the fast lane, and then it was hit by another car, and then it dragged its back legs behind it to the embankment and disappeared. I called the police on 101 and told them what happened, and then I told my colleague, Michelle Lahey, what had happened."
Theresa, who has a 16-year-old cat called Daisy-May, said she put a post on ‘lost & found cats in Stoke-on-Trent’ group on Facebook with a description and lamppost number. “About seven people stopped to help us find the cat, including volunteers of Betley Cat Rescue," she said. "Eventually I saw a little paw sticking up next to a log, and at first I thought he’d died, but I picked him up and he was still warm and he opened his eyes. He was a little treasure despite being in shock, and he sat in his carrier so well."
Colleague Michelle Lahey, a huge animal lover, helped with the rescue mission. She said: “I’m so glad he was found because he would’ve been cold, soaking and starving. He’s young and he’s tiny. How anyone could do such an evil thing is beyond me - it’s disgusting. Once the cat had been found and he was put in the carrier we had to form a human chain to get him up the embankment safely because it was so steep, and the thorns, nettles and trees were difficult to navigate around."
Gill Maskew is a volunteer at Betley Cat Rescue and rushed to the scene as soon as she saw the post on Facebook. She said: “Theresa was in bits when we saw her, but she saved this cat’s life. If she hadn’t stopped then the cat would’ve died in agony because nobody else stopped. We took him to White Cross Vets who had their coats on and were about to shut, but they were brilliant and gave him some pain relief and sedated him so he wasn’t as stressed and confused. We then went to an out-of-hours vets who took X-rays and kept him overnight. Terry’s got a badly broken back leg that’s facing the wrong way, a broken pelvis in a number of places, broken tail, a broken sacrum, and he might have nerve damage because he isn’t urinating so the vets put a catheter in this morning. There’s a 50 per cent chance he’ll live. I paid £500 for Terry’s initial treatment so he doesn’t get put down."
Betley Cat Rescue volunteer Michelle Whitmore is hoping to catch the person responsible for hurling Terry from the car. She said: “The law is that if you hit a cat then you don’t have to report it, you can just keep driving. This needs changing because a pet is a part of someone’s family, and if it was a child then the story would be much different." A reward of £400 is available for witnesses who come forward with information about the incident. Anyone driving on the A500 between 2.50pm to 3.15pm on Wednesday should check their dash cam. Staffordshire Police can be contacted on 101 quoting with the crime incident number: 447181023. A fundraiser has been launched to help pay for medical fees. To donate visit here.