On the morning of May 3, 2025, cries of kittens came from a rubbish bin near Tin Hau Temple on Yee Kuk Street in Sham Shui Po. Passers-by checked and called police. Officers found a tightly knotted plastic bag containing five very young kittens and a pair of white socks. Public reports said the kittens were only about one to two days old. They were found in time, remained conscious, and were taken into SPCA care.

A faint cry from a bin saved five lives

HK01, Wen Wei Po, Ming Pao and on.cc all reported that police received a report at about 10 a.m. on May 3: a plastic bag containing kittens had been found inside a rubbish bin near Tin Hau Temple on Yee Kuk Street. Officers discovered the bag had been tied in a dead knot; inside were five kittens and a pair of white socks. Placing newborn kittens in that condition was not ordinary abandonment. It exposed them to suffocation, loss of body heat and helplessness.

TVB reported that the kittens were estimated to be only one to two days old and had no visible surface wounds. Precisely because they were so young, not yet able to open their eyes or escape a sealed bag, the method was especially cruel. They were rescued because someone heard their cries from the bin. Had they been found later, the outcome might have been entirely different.

“Unable to keep them” cannot explain a sealed knot and deprivation

HK01 reported that after investigation, police arrested a 71-year-old local man in Sham Shui Po at around 7 p.m. the same day on suspicion of cruelty to animals. Officers found three adult local cats at his home. The report also said the person was understood to have claimed he could not keep the five newborn cats and admitted the three adult cats belonged to him.

Even more painful, HK01 reported that among the three adult cats was the mother of the kittens, and that all adult cats were trapped in cages without water or food before being taken by the SPCA for treatment. If these reports are accurate, the case was not simply a moment of abandoning newborns. It was a whole group of cats dependent on human care being pushed into a state where they could not save themselves.

The severity was not erased because the kittens survived

Lack of capacity to care for animals could have led to asking for help, transferring them to rescuers, contacting animal groups or seeking temporary placement. Whatever the pressure, putting one- or two-day-old kittens into a plastic bag, tying it shut and throwing it into a rubbish bin is not an understandable solution.

This archive records the case because the fact that all five kittens survived does not make the harm light. Their cries were heard, and they remind us that when life is that small, one human choice can decide whether it lives or disappears somewhere no one sees.

Timeline

• Around 10 a.m., May 3, 2025: Passers-by heard kittens crying from a rubbish bin near Tin Hau Temple on Yee Kuk Street, Sham Shui Po, and called police.
• After police arrived: Officers found a tightly knotted plastic bag containing five newborn kittens and a pair of white socks. The kittens survived and were handed to the SPCA.
• Around 7 p.m., May 3, 2025: Police arrested a 71-year-old local man in Sham Shui Po on suspicion of animal cruelty.
• Later reports: Police found three adult cats at the premises; HK01 reported the adult cats were caged without water or food and were taken by the SPCA for treatment.

Public Sources

• HK01: man in his seventies arrested after five kittens abandoned; three adult cats found without water or food
• Wen Wei Po: five kittens found in sealed plastic bag in Sham Shui Po rubbish bin; elderly cat owner arrested
• Ming Pao: five kittens rescued from sealed plastic bag; elderly cat owner arrested on animal-cruelty suspicion
• on.cc: five kittens placed in knotted plastic bag and abandoned; 71-year-old man arrested
• SCMP: Hong Kong police arrest man, 71, after five kittens found tied up in plastic bags