Animal lovers donate £8,000 for kitten’s operation

Peanut was born with deformed front legs and abandoned by his feral mother and siblings when he was just three-weeks-old.

He was taken in by Heronbank Cat Rescue in Batley which launched the Pounds For Peanuts campaign to raise £8,000 for a groundbreaking operation.

Heronbank founder Anne Fairless said: “Peanut’s condition is very rare, he needs surgery to repair it. A lot of places would have put him to sleep but we don’t work like that.”

After two weeks of the campaign, all the money was raised.

Peanut is now seven-months-old and lives with foster owner Diane Gregor in Poole in Wharfedale.

The kitten will have surgery in June to relieve tension caused by his abnormally tight tendons and ligaments.

He was born in a hole in the ground inside a shed on the outskirts of Barnsley.

The owner of the house appealed on Facebook for help after she heard his cries and found him alone, clawing at the hole last October.