The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it had rescued almost 150,000 wild, exotic, farm and domestic animals, many which needed help because of the floods that engulfed much of Britain last summer.

But among those pets that were simply abandoned were a litter of kittens left in a dustbin bag for refuse collectors and a rabbit dumped in a box in a crushing machine at a recycling centre.

Owners had also given bizarre reasons for getting rid of their pets, such as "my dog hurts my leg when she wags her tail."

"It is an offence to abandon any animal and there is never any excuse for doing so," said Tim Wass, chief officer of the RSPCA inspectorate.

"Last summer we deployed the biggest number of RSPCA staff for a generation to the rescue of farm animals, horses and other much-loved pets from the severe floods that swept the country."

The charity said the trend for dumping pets looked set to continue with 2,621 abandoned animals already rescued this year.