Donors raised over £11,000 for the charity after the shelter posted a desperate fundraising appeal on Facebook following a rise in vet bills due to more animals being abandoned.

The small charity, which cares for around 100 animals at any given time, says the issue is putting significant strain on its team.

Within 24 hours, the charity had already received £7,000 from fundraisers.

Speaking to The Bolton News, the shelter’s Operations Manager Jenna Jones said: “We’ve seen a sharp rise in animals being bought to us this year, especially with cats and kittens coming in at the moment. At the time we made the appeal, we’d had three young kittens come in and within two weeks their health had declined dramatically due to Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP).

We were told that we could either have them put down or give them medication, so we wanted to give them a chance with the medication, but it was 12 weeks at £567 a bottle and one bottle was needed for each of them.

“We have loads of vet bills, another animal we have is a pocket bully, Bear, who needs surgery on his throat as he is struggling to breathe. The money raised will go towards his surgery so that he is no longer struggling.”

“He can’t even walk around the block at the moment; his breathing is so bad. The operations cost over a grand, so once again it all adds up per animal especially when you consider that we have 20 dogs and 50 cats in at the moment.”