Cat Stuck in Peanut Butter Jar Euthanised But Not before Birthing Kittens

“Poor baby. Wish she could have been saved!” – Roman Katz (on YouTube)

I find that this is a sad story and I’m unsure that this mother cat should have been euthanised but what do I know? I don’t know the complete, hard facts so perhaps I am wrong.

The female cat who has been called Skippy was found with her head firmly jammed inside a hard plastic jar of peanut butter. She must have been starving. Alyssa Cline a 23-year-old resident of the area (near San Jacinto, California, USA) said that her nephew first spotted the cat. She wanted to help and felt that this was an emergency, which it certainly was.

They put the cat inside a crate and took her to a garage and tried to remove the hard plastic jar with a pair of scissors which failed because the scissors broke. They called Riverside County Animal Services. A lady called Cara Mathewson turned up with a much more appropriate tool with which she was able to remove the peanut butter jar without harming Skippy.

So far so good. Skippy was naturally very anxious and difficult to handle. We don’t know whether she was a feral cat but it looks like that or perhaps she was semi-feral. Health-wise she was in a bad way.

She had an infestation of maggots in her ears. As mentioned, we don’t have a full description of her medical condition but somebody decided on March 21 to euthanise her due to her health. We know that a veterinarian described her condition as malnourished and dehydrated with spots of dead tissue and an infestation of maggots. That is the bad and sad news.

Before she was euthanised, she unexpectedly gave birth to 4 kittens who have been appropriately named: Peanut, Butter, Jelly and Honey.

When she arrived at the shelter, Skippy was difficult to handle unsurprisingly. She was described as being fractious, hissing and swatting. Shelter staff were unable to carry out a full medical because of her behaviour. The next morning when they went to the shelter to check on her they found at the rear of her cage, in a box, with umbilical cords and placentas still attached, four kittens.

The kittens are now being fostered by Diane Chase and Elizabeth Coyle. Chase bottle feeds the kittens. Coyle helps when she is able to as she works in a customer service role at an apartment complex.

It is an interesting story containing a lot of elements to do with cat rescue and although I am not being in any way critical, I wonder whether the mother had to be euthanised. I wonder if her behaviour was a factor in the decision. It would have been nice is she could have raised her kittens.