ANIMAL welfare volunteers have saved six kittens found abandoned on a roadside – and say they are having to deal with dozens of unwanted cats.

The ginger and white animals were discovered on a grass verge between Skeeby and Gilling West, near Richmond , North Yorkshire.

They had been dropped at the side of the road and were discovered by a dog walker.

Elaine Bird, a live-in warden at Kiplin Hall, near Scorton, is fostering the animals on behalf of the RSPCA.

She said: “They’re only about five weeks old. They’ve just been weaned and wouldn’t have survived much longer, especially the littlest one.

“In the ten years I’ve been fostering animals, I’ve never seen a kitten so cold and lifeless.

Another hour or so and it would have been dead.

“I laid it on a hot water bottle, covered it with a blanket and managed to give it some warm milk with a tad of whisky. I didn’t think it would live, but it has come round now.”

Animals found abandoned animals are often placed with volunteer foster carers.

RSPCA co-ordinator June Levy, from Northallerton , said subsidised neutering schemes for animals were being offered by a number of organisations, including the Cats Protection League and the RSPCA.

She said: “We’re inundated with kittens at the moment.

I’m already looking after four at my home, then another six came in, and then ten kittens were bought to me yesterday and another two cats.

“There’s a lot of unwanted animals at the moment. It could be because of the recession, but I’ve been doing this 30 years and there are always abandoned animals.”

Anybody interested in rehoming the cats, or who can foster unwanted animals in North Yorkshire, is asked to contact June Levy on 01609- 776652.