An animal rescue group believes it has been approached by people seeking kittens who want to use them as bait in dog fights.
Kingdom Cat & Dog Rescue, which is based in Kerry, claims dog fights, which are illegal, are taking place around the country.
Sabine Batternay says the people behind these approaches usually claim to be such animal lovers they want to take all the kittens or that they need lots of cats to kill rodents.
"'[They might say] 'we have a farm and we have vermin', and my next comment would be that we have to bring the kittens out to you because we always do a home check."
Then we also charge an adoption fee to make sure that the kittens will be neutered because we will be given something towards that to relieve the costs," continued Sabine.
"Then they usually pull out straight away, saying: 'Ohh, I'll ring you back - I'll think about it'."
The news comes after a man in Scotland was jailed for 10 months last October for purchasing cats on Gumtree - only to use them as bait in dog fights.
The individual bought cats online from sellers who believed they were going to a safe home, prompting the Scottish SPCA to urge pet owners to carry out checks when selling or rehoming cats.
