RSPCA South Australia is appealing for public help to identify the person who left a cat inside a zip-locked cage outside the Salvos store at Salisbury Downs at around 11pm on Monday night.
An eyewitness who was walking her dog nearby at the time has reported seeing a gold- coloured car pull up next to the Salvos store on Winzor Street and a woman climb out of the driver's seat and place two bags in front of the store.
The woman then went to the vehicle's rear passenger seat, removed a large box covered in a sheet and placed it beside the bags before quickly driving off.
The eyewitness approached the box because it was rattling, and when she was closer she saw that there was a ginger and white cat inside a wire cage that also contained a small, dirty bowl of water and had three small packets of cat food attached to the outside.
There was no bedding inside the cage and it was around 10 degrees Celsius at the time.
The eyewitness did not get the car's registration plate details and there are no CCTV cameras capturing the area where the cat was left.
The very friendly animal, believed to be about a year old, is now being cared for at RSPCA's Lonsdale shelter. If no-one claims her, she will be desexed and made available to adopt.
There has been a 5% increase in the number of animals dumped in public spaces or abandoned at vacated properties from January to September this year (484), compared with the same nine-month period last year (460).
Anyone who is unable to care for an animal for whatever reason is urged to surrender them to a reputable animal welfare organisation such as RSPCA during opening hours.
Abandoning an animal is an offence under South Australia's Animal Welfare Act, and anyone found guilty can face up to two years imprisonment or a $20,000 fine.
Anyone with any information is urged to contact RSPCA on: 1300 4 777 22
