Earlier this month, a sanitation worker in Oregon was emptying a bin into his truck when something concerning caught his ear.

From deep inside the receptacle came the distressing cries of an animal in need. Looking closer the worker found this — a helpless young kitten whom some cruel person had sprayed with hardening foam and left to die.

“He looked like something out of a Halloween horror show,” Diane Healey, from the Hillsboro Veterinary Clinic, told FOX 12 News. “It obviously hadn’t been there too terribly long, or he would have suffocated. The head was covered, the face was covered, the legs were stiff, he couldn’t move them.”

Fortunately, the kitten was soon freed from the foam encasing him.

“The driver took the garbage can back to the Hillsboro Garbage Disposal facility where shop staff worked together to remove the 8-week-old male kitten from the spray foam and take it to a local veterinarian for care,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a statement.

Officials said that the kitten was likely born to a feral cat known to live near the multi-unit residence where the bin had been set out. They are seeking the public’s help in tracking down the person responsible for this sickening case of animal cruelty.

The rescued kitten, meanwhile, is now safe and sound despite what had been done to him.

A spokesperson at the Bonnie Hays Animal Shelter, where the kitten is being treated, told The Dodo that his prognosis is good:

“He is expected to make a full recovery.”