When renown zoologist Prof. Alan McElligott, who specialises in animal communication, heard cries coming from a recycling bin, he immediately recognised them as coming from a cat in distress.
So Prof McElligott did what any other animal lover would do and initially tried to see if he could see the distressed feline hidden in the recycling bin beneath all of the clothes.
But when he could not spot the source of the noise, he called the police using the non-emergency 101 number to get some help.
Travelling between calls, local officers in Bromley attended the scene. Also, they found that, upon hearing the distressed cat, that they were compelled to help the animal rather than just leaving it to perish, so they requested the assistance of the local fire brigade.
As no other emergency calls in the area needed to be dealt with, firefighters from the London Fire Brigade made their way to the scene to rescue the cat from the certain doom that it faced.
After around 90 minutes, the ‘cat‘ was freed from its tomb of toys and old clothes. But it turned out that the cat was a toy cat rather than a real animal.
Prof McEilligott tweeted to say:
“I went to a recycling bin to dump some old clothes. Heard the cries of a cat inside, so called the local police to get it out. Police confirmed cat cries. Ninety minutes later, Fire Brigade came to break open the bin.
“The “cat” turned out to be a battery powered toy, with very convincing meows!”
One of Professor McElligott’s followers tweeted to say:
“At least you’re not a highly qualified zoologist with specific expertise in – now, let me check…. – animal vocal communication.
“Excellent story!”
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