Published Apr 10, 2026
Kirsten McCarthy / Cats.com
Sometimes, a caring human lands in the right place at the right time – the purrfect time to save a vulnerable feline life. That happened recently in British Columbia, Canada, where a worker at a waste management plant stepped up to save five kittens from a terrible death.
The unnamed worker at a waste facility in Abbotsford was loading cardboard into a compactor when he heard faint cries coming from underneath the pile of cardboard. He lifted up the cardboard cover and discovered two tiny kittens, who would have been crushed to death if he hadn’t have found and saved them.
The man took the two babies to the BC SPCA in Abbotsford right away. Then, when he got back to work, he discovered a third kitten and brought that baby to the shelter, too. The babies were just a few weeks old and needed round-the-clock care with bottle feeding.
“We are incredibly grateful he found them,” Sarah Ringer-Vinnard, manager of the BC SPCA Abbotsford, said in a press release. “He saved the kittens from the most horrible fate.”
Three days after the man’s discovery in February, he discovered two more kittens! The shelter was closed on that day – Family Day, a Canadian holiday – so he took them to his home to care for the kittens overnight. Then, he brought the remaining two kittens to the SPCA the next day.
Shelter workers and volunteers provided great care for the kitten family, which has two brown tabby boys named Dave and Steven, two orange tabbies named Dorito and Cheeto, and a tortoiseshell named Annie. They all had upper respiratory infections when they came in with significant eye discharge, but antibiotics healed them of that condition, Ringer-Vinnard says.
Surprisingly, despite their traumatic beginnings, the kittens are all very cuddly and love people. They have been in foster care and are thriving and gaining weight well, and the kittens should be available for adoption later in April, an SPCA official says.
“We are grateful they were saved and now have the chance to live their best life!” Jansait Qughondouqa, SPCA senior regional communications officer, tells us in an email.
If you want to donate to the shelter to help provide emergency care for these kittens and other animals, you can help at this link. This page includes an adorable reel of Steven meowing!
These dumpster kittens’ story circulated in the media and several outlets wrote about these kittens’ remarkable residue. Comments from People readers reflect the sentiment we cat lovers feel: Bless this man for saving these poor babies, and may the person responsible for the kittens being there be punished.
“I can’t believe some monster did that to them,” one reader commented. Another added: “Good karma for you, kind sir!!!” Yes, indeed.
Sadly, stray and feral cats and kittens in search of food often appear around trash dumpsters. It is heartbreaking to think that a hungry cat in search of food could accidentally end up in a garbage truck with the trash, or even worse, end up in a trash compactor like the British Columbia kittens almost did.
In 2024, a Swedish woman named Jennifer Thowsen was vacationing in Greece and outside walking when she heard an abandoned kitten crying in a trash receptacle. She discovered the dirty, weak baby and pulled her out, then took the kitten back to where she was staying to care for her. Jennifer fell in love with the kitten she named Tussen, and took her back home to Sweden to live happily with her rescuer!
In another case back in 2023, a kind woman in La Quinta, California, heard meowing from a trash compactor behind a shopping center. It was late at night, so the woman couldn’t reach anyone at the waste management company, and she didn’t have any luck with law enforcement and the fire department.
Determined to save the babies she could hear crying, the woman called a local news station around midnight and left a voicemail pleading for help. First thing in the morning, the crew for the early broadcast heard the message and reached out to the city animal services. Rescuers saved three kittens who were stuck in this dumpster and faced a tragic fate. God bless them!
We cat lovers should keep our eyes and ears open for meows when we are around trash dumps and compactors, and call for help if we detect felines trapped inside. Also, we should make an effort to feed stray and feral cats, and help to get them fixed to prevent litters of unwanted kittens. Precious cats are way too valuable to be living around trash!
