Pet cat ‘crisis’ if owners fail to stop litters
Celebs blast airline for vicious job cuts and attack on pay & conditions
BOOM New kittens are at risk
TENS of thousands of kittens will become homeless due to owners failing to neuter their cats, experts warn.
The RSCPA, Cats Protection and Battersea Cats and Dogs Home expect up to 84,000 more kittens than usual to arrive this season.
Cats can start mating at four months and will even mate with their relatives.
Owners who cannot get their felines neutered due to the lockdown are being urged to keep them apart, or to contact a vet if they think mating has occurred.
Jane Clements, Head of Neutering at Cats Protection, said owners must do their bit to avoid a “kitten crisis”, adding: “An unneutered female cat can have up to 18 kittens per year.”
Last year, 216,261 cats were neutered in England and Wales.
LEN McCLUSKEY UNITE UNION GEN SECRETARY
Thandie Newton poses for British Airways ad in 2013
Stephen Fry’s tweet blasting BA actions
Fry
STEPHEN Fry and golfer Lee Westwood are among celebrities to slam British Airways over its plans to axe up to 12,000 jobs and “slash” workers’ pay and conditions.
Actresses Sadie Frost and Thandie Newton, who previously appeared in an in-flight video for the airline, plus former Love Island contestant Amy Hart also backed condemnation of BA.
Its owner, International Airlines Group, has been accused of using the coronavirus crisis to impose a long-held aim to wreck workers’ terms and conditions.
Unite said BA is to fire its entire 42,000 workforce and rehire those who survive on “totally new, lesser contracts of employment”.
Fry said: “It really does look as though British Airways’ board is using the pandemic as cover for some brutal behaviour.”
And Westwood added: “Surely the Government cannot allow this to happen?”
Hart, endorsing Unite’s “BA Betrayal” campaign, said: “Last year, each staff member generated £45,714 in pure profit.”
Mission Impossible star Newton used Twitter to share a link to an online petition against the cuts, which has now had more than 210,000 signatures.
Asked this week about the proposed redundancies while BA is using the Government’s
furlough scheme, PM Boris Johnson said: “I’m aware of this issue and we’re actively looking at what can be done.”
The Mirror has been inundated with emails and messages from BA crew members after highlighting the issue.
One worker said their confidence and mental health had been “destroyed”.
Another said the impact had been “hellish”. She added: “This is pushing people over the edge...”
The Mirror revealed IAG is sitting on £8billion cash, has paid £3.6bn in dividends since 2015 and how its boss Willie Walsh has collected £33million in pay and perks since 2010.
Len McCluskey, of Unite, said: “There is growing public opinion against BA’s grotesque behaviour. BA is using this health crisis as cover to impose a long-term plan to slash jobs, pay and conditions. No other employer has threatened to effectively ‘fire and rehire’ its entire workforce.
“Over 40,000 loyal BA staff now face losing their livelihoods or being re-interviewed for their own jobs on vastly reduced terms and conditions.”
BA said it did not recognise the £45,714 claim. It said: “We are acting now to protect as many jobs as possible. The industry is facing the deepest structural change in its history...”
BONUS Walsh
Golfer Lee Westwood
CONCERNS Sadie Frost
SUPPORT
BA is using the crisis to impose a plan to slash jobs and pay