Hillsboro Garbage Disposal Nabs Award for Saving Kitten Dumped in Trash Can

PETA Honors Rescuers—and Offers $5,000 Reward for Information About Whoever Doused Animal With Spray Foam and Left Him for Dead

For Immediate Release:
May 20, 2019

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

For rescuing a kitten who’d been covered with spray foam and dumped in a garbage bin, PETA is sending a Compassionate Action Award to the employees of Hillsboro Garbage Disposal.

In the early hours of May 3, an employee was working his shift on the 4200 block of S.W. Minter Bridge Road when he came across a horrifying sight: A kitten was hanging by his back legs inside a trash can with his legs tied together and his face encased in hardened spray foam. The man heard him whimpering and alerted his colleagues—and they rushed the kitten to the Hillsboro Garbage Disposal facility, where they managed to remove him from the bin. They laid the cat on a blanket, freed his legs, and carefully used a razor blade to chip away at the foam on his face before rushing him to a veterinarian. He is currently receiving care and is expected to recover.

PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction on cruelty-to-animals charges of the person(s) responsible for this act.

“Thanks to the kindness and quick action of these workers, a vulnerable kitten was spared a painful, terrifying, lonely death,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA is urging anyone with information about whoever abused this animal and threw him out like trash to speak up before anyone else gets hurt.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. The group encourages everyone to take action whenever an animal is in danger and offers tips for reporting cruelty to animals on its website.

Hillsboro Garbage Disposal will receive a framed certificate and a box of delicious vegan cookies.

Anyone with information about this case should contact Cpl. Brandon Talbott of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 503-846-2700.

For more information about helping animals, please visit PETA.org.