Prince the cat’s life is saved after hit and run accident in East Ham

Quick-thinking by the RSPCA and two community support officers has saved the life of a cat that was the victim of a hit and run car accident.

The lovely little pale tabby and white cat was run over in High Street North, East Ham.

Lorna Gowers from the London East RSPCA branch was driving along the road when she saw the cat bring up blood and being cared for by two community support officers.

“There was not much time to act. Knowing how short staffed the RSPCA is and the time it would have taken me to take him to them, I decided to take him to a 24-hour vets.

“I could hear the difficulty he was having breathing and I thought he might die before I go to the veterinary hospital,” said Lorna.

The “lovely boy” was put on oxygen and it was touch and go but now, nicknamed Prince because of the Royal Jubilee celebrations, he had has a broken jaw wired together and is hopefully on the road to recovery.

Prince is in foster care with Lorna.

“He will need to have the wired jaw operated on again in six to eight weeks. He has also been neutered. No owner has come forward despite an onlooker saying that they thought knew who the owner was. As a result this cat will now go up for homing.

“The driver who ran the cat over didn’t stop. If the community support officers had not protected the cat from being run over again he could have been killed.

“Treatment such as this cat received can cost up to �1,000. The RSPCA East London Branch does not have funds to treat every cat that gets run over .”

She appealed to cat owners to have their cat micro-chipped.

“If they are not we cannot contact owners and there is a risk that the cat will have to be put to sleep because there is no money to treat it.

“ It is very common for male cats who are not neutered/sterilised to end up in road traffic accidents. Neutering/sterilising male cats can prevent these sometimes fatal accidents. Microchipping a cat means we can contact you if your cat is lost or injured.”