Kitten boom at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home blamed on cost of living crisis

Centre in London says record number born on site is a result of fewer people being able to afford cost of neutering

Parsnip, Cranberry and Sprouts. Not your Christmas dinner, but a festive trio of fluffy black and white kittens, newly arrived at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Down the corridor in the cattery, another three newborns have just been taken in, along with their parents, in something approaching a feline nativity scene.

The new arrivals are, according to Bridie Williams, Battersea's cattery manager, ridiculously cute". And they come at the end of a year during which 133 kittens were born on site - considerably more than any year in the past decade.