A CATS charity is appealing for more people to help re-home pets as demand continues to increase.

Burnley and Pendle Cats Protection had a record year for re-homing in 2013, but said demand was continuing to grow.

The group is appealing for more fosterers to come forward who can help re-home cats.

Vivienne Ball, a volunteer at the charity, said: “In 2013 we re-homed 75 cats and 107 kittens, so 182 in total, which is more than in previous years.

“We also issued 780 neutering vouchers to help people with their pet cats, strays and ferals.

“Because of our success we did incur more costs for veterinary care, food and transport.

“We had very heavy demand to re-home cats for a variety of reasons, this included quite a number of requests from multiple cat households.

“Very often we haven't a place for one cat never mind being asked to take three, for example.

“This branch covers a large area with a limited number of volunteers. We really need more volunteers as drivers and fosterers.

“We are sometimes asked to take in older cats sadly where their owner has died, or is in bad health.

“Older cats can take longer to rehome, We would like to have more long-term foster places for older cats.”

Mrs Ball praised local people for helping to raise funds to keep the charity going.

She said: “We very much appreciate the generosity of the public in supporting us on our fundraising days, and with the ‘feed the paw’ donation boxes at Morrisons and Sainsbury’s.

“We use all the food donated for our cats in care.”

To contact Burnley and Pendle Cats Protection call 01282 693 400.