A dog owner has received a police caution after his pets escaped and tore apart a tom cat.

Janet Lamont, the cat's owner, said a neighbour witnessed the horrifying attack, in which the bull-terrier-type dog and an Alsatian attacked and killed her pet in the garden of her elderly next-door-neighbour.

She said the police were called after the unsupervised animals killed the cat.

She said the officers followed the dogs back to their home, where they gave the owner a caution.

Mrs Lamont, 58, said Sylvia, the ten-year-old tom cat, had been a "soft and loving" pet.

"He didn't deserve to die like he did," she said.

Mrs Lamont, who has lived at her home in Odsal, for 15 years, said she had reported the dogs to the RSPCA because they were a danger to humans and other animals.

A police spokesman said: "We received a report of two dogs having killed a cat.

"Police attended and spoke to the dog owner, who has been given a caution in connection to the incident."

An RSPCA spokesman said: "The RSPCA would like to offer its deepest sympathies to the owner of the cat. It must have been extremely traumatic for her that her cat was killed in such a horrific manner.

"We always urge all dog owners to keep their pets under control, to take responsibility for them and to stop them behaving in an aggressive way."