Two kittens have been found dumped in a cardboard box in a Watford park.

The black cats, who are both female and thought to be about 12-weeks-old, were left abandoned with cat food in the box outside Cha Cha Cha cafe in Cassiobury Park on Tuesday.

A member of the public alerted the Park Veterinary Centre in Cassiobury Drive, who took the kittens in and treated a flea infestation.

The pair are described as "very friendly", which vets believe means the kittens came from a friendly cat rather than a feral stray.

The abandoned kittens are in good health and are set to be re-homed if no-one comes forward to claim them.

But a manager at Park Veterinary Centre said the practice is not a charity and not therefore funded to take strays.

Carol McGuigan, small animal manager, said: "A member of the public telephoned in to say two kittens had been dumped in a cardboard box outside the Cha Cha Cha cafe in Cassiobury Park.

"We informed the caller that it is normally a charity who can help with that and suggested the Cats Protection League.

"The caller rang back and said that the charity they tried had said they couldn’t help.

"We couldn’t just leave them there, and so we took them in.

"What often galls us is that all the animal charities should be doing this work, but we often have stay cats here because there is no one left to take them.

"It really gets under our skin.

"The charities are funded to do this work - we have to fund it ourselves."

Nobody from Cats Protection was available for comment