Women given animal bans for treating their cats as makeshift babies

Two Swedish women have been banned from keeping animals after authorities found they had treated their cats as makeshift babies with one of them even 'breastfeeding' her pet.

Several anonymous reports prompted animal protection officers from Halland county council to visit the women's homes in the south-western Swedish region this autumn. It emerged that the pair had pushed their cats around in pushchairs.



They had spoon-fed the cats while keeping them strapped to highchairs, and had also let the animals suck on pacifiers. One woman also confessed she regularly let her cat suckle on her breast.

Authorities ruled that the pets had been mishandled and had been prevented from exercising natural animal behaviour. The two cats were taken into the care of animal protection officers.