Rescue will neuter a cat and name it after your ex

An animal rescue centre in North Yorkshire has offered to neuter and name feral cats after people's exes.

The initiative, to mark Valentine's Day, is in exchange for a donation to Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary.

Manager at the centre, Alexandra Smith, said: "So you can neuter your ex for £10!"

Within the first morning of going online, the social media post attracted hundreds of comments and more than £200 has been raised so far.

"One of my friends got in touch with me with this idea and I was trying to think how we could do it for a place like this," Ms Smith said.

"I asked our volunteers to send in photos of cats we've had here that are particularly feral and nasty, and they sent me in their hissy photos."

She then put a poster together and put it on Facebook, to the delight of supporters.

"Seeing all the comments, it's made a lot of people smile," Ms Smith added.

Among the names put into the feral cat tin were Andrew, Mark and Jess, but Ms Smith said they had mostly been men's names.

"I hope we get our tin filled by the end of the day," she added.

The rescue has 10 pens in their cattery, each with a feral cat or a group of cats in.

"We trap, neuter and try to help reduce the feral population, which benefits not just wildlife but the cats and people living in the areas too," Ms Smith said.

"When a cat isn't neutered, feral cat populations can become out of control, so it's really important people neuter their pets if they are letting them out to roam."

According to the rescue centre, there is a feral cat problem across the country.

Being quick breeders, cats can have three litters a year of three to 10 kittens.

These kittens could then breed themselves at only five or six months old.

Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary, which was set up in 2009, is helping to combat this and has 200 volunteers helping them to operate.

Feral cats can be rehomed, but are often sent to stables, smallholdings and farms where they can be useful for pest control and live in barns and outbuildings.

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