KEY POINTS:
Three cats are in the Canterbury SPCA's care after being found in a train, locked inside a container packed with household furniture.
The owners were moving from Ashburton to Hamilton and decided to send the cats by rail, a journey that can take up to a week.
A couple of days into the trip, the owners discovered the train was delayed and confessed the cats were on board.
Shelter manager Geoff Sutton said there was no light in the container, very little air and no water left by the time the animals were rescued.
The cats were distressed and dehydrated and it was unlikely they would have survived the trip to Hamilton, he said.
Mr Sutton said Animal Welfare Act regulations required animals to be transported in a comfortable and safe manner, for the shortest possible time and the cats' owners made a particularly bad judgement call.
However, the animals would probably be given back to their owners once suitable transport arrangements were made, he said.
- NEWSTALK ZB
