AN animal rehoming charity in the North East is having to turn away cats due to an upsurge in “backstreet breeding”.

The People’s Animal Rescue and Rehoming Team, based in Northumberland, has had to reject cats and kittens on a regular basis in the last few months because it is at saturation point as a result of a massive increase in the feline population.

The charity claims disreputable people are breeding cats with the intention of selling them to make money, in some cases to feed drug habits.

It says the rogue breeders are seeking to sell the kittens, without spaying them in the hope of getting more money, and using avenues like Freecycle – a website where people seek to dispose of unwanted items – to do so.

When the breeders are unable to sell the cats, the rehoming team claims they are simply dumped or worse.

They are being discovered by people who take them to vets, which then contact the shelter, or directly to the organisation.

The charity recently took in five black kittens which had been put in a cardboard box and dumped at the old Isabella pit at Blyth.

Last week the group trapped and rescued three cats and eight kittens from a garden at Lynemouth, a community said to be overrun by felines.

The rescue group now has in the region of 120 unwanted cats and kittens at its network of foster carers across the North East – which it says is saturation level.

And it is receiving countless calls about others, with five yesterday morning alone.