An animal rescue centre in Bromley Cross has been forced to stop accepting new cats as vets bills are hitting £500 a week.

Lisa Thorley runs the Diefers Legacy Animal Rescue from her home and has foster parents who look after abandoned pets.

She is currently taking care of around 35 of the animals but has a lengthy waiting list so will not be taking any more cats.

The centre, which opened in February last year as rising demand was noticed, is run by the support of donations.

But with vets bills of around £500 a week the owner is appealing for help to keep running the operation.

It takes in animals from Bolton, Wigan, Manchester, Farnworth, Blackburn and Darwen.

The owner said: “We have massive bills.

“We do not get funding, we rely on people being kind.”

She said hers was one of only two rescue centre serving the Bolton area and said it was a bad spot for abandoned cats.

She said: “It is a massive problem but nobody knows anything about it.

“I don’t know why it is in Bolton, people just don’t care about their cats.

“People buy a cat when it is young and when it becomes an adolescent they get rid of it.

“Or people buy a cat for an old person and it outlives them and no family wants to take it.

“I don’t know about the country but Bolton is definitely the worst place in the north west for this.”

She added that unneutered cats were a problem.

She said: “People need to neuter their cats to stop them fighting.

“Cats are mini lions, unneutered cats fight for territory and they fight for females.

“Lost and Found is full of cats like this.

“If they are neutered they do not do this.”

Donations to the centre can be made online.