Dangerously low temperatures can be the difference between life and death for abandoned pets. 

On Tuesday, a South Bend woman, Tina Caparell McGrogan, found a box of abandoned kittens when the wind chill made it felt like it was just 39 degrees outside.

St Joseph County Humane Society workers say they see this issue every year.

For whatever reason, people choose to get rid of their puppies or kittens and instead of finding them a good home or making sure they are safe at a shelter, they just leave the animals in a box outside and a lot of times pets freeze to death.

“That is a horrible death for these animals,” expressed Carol Ecker, Executive Director of the Humane Society. “We have seen kittens frozen to death - left out in this kind of weather, rainy, wet, cold.”

McGrogan found three kittens just weeks old, in a box outside Good Shepherd Montessori Church Tuesday night. 

“I was glad they were not thrown out a car window or dumped into the river but leaving them in just a public place is not necessarily a guarantee that someone good is going to find them and take care of them," said McGrogan.

McGrogan says if you cannot take care of a litter, you need to be two steps ahead of the game. 

“The most responsible choice seriously is to just spay or neuter your animals," said McGrogan.

Ecker agrees, “Do not drop them off in a box somewhere and for gosh sakes do not kill the cats by drowning them that is horrible, and people still do that.”

Ecker says if you cannot take care of your pets, at least make sure they are left in good hands. 

“The Humane Society has an open door policy; we have to take all the animals that are brought to us if they are in our jurisdiction," said Ecker.