A FAMILY'S pet cat was savaged to death after thugs threw it into a back yard with two snarling alsatians.

Alison and Stephen Wilkinson, of Revidge Road, Blackburn, returned home from a day out with their four young children to find clumps of fur and broken plant pots littering the backyard.

They thought their beloved pet Bertie had been fighting with another cat -- until they discovered its body in bits.

Their children, Thomas, 12, Lucy, 10, Laura, eight, and Harry, five, were taken inside while a neighbour explained that a group of teenage boys had put the two large dogs into the back yard and closed the gate.

A younger boy then climbed on to a wheelie bin and pushed the cat off the wall into the dogs.

The dogs, with blood dripping from their teeth, were then released.

Alison, 36, said: "The children are absolutely devastated. We have had Bertie for 15 years so he has always been there as part of the family and they are really upset.

"We haven't told the youngest two what happened and Harry keeps asking us to bring him back.

"I can't believe that anyone could do that and be so cruel. He must have been fighting for his life. It is such a wicked thing to do. What next?

"Those dogs ripped the cat to bits, so I dread to think what could have happened if the children had been there and been attacked themselves."

Blackburn police said they are investigating the incident.