Animal rescuers on red alert as it rains cats and dogs in Britain

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

OXFORD, England (AFP) — It is not only humans who have been hit by Britain's worst floods in 60 years -- cats, dogs and donkeys are also suffering, prompting a rescue mission on an unprecedented scale.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has sent a third of its inspectors to central and western England, where they are working round the clock to ensure the safety of all creatures great and small.

One of the team, Kirsty Hampton, patrols the flooded plains of Oxford, the swamped university city in central England, to make sure that cows grazing there are not threatened by rising water levels.

This time, she was called out by a concerned onlooker but, standing on a fence and peering over to where they are grazing on an island of...