A YOUNG family has been left distraught after a heartless thug shot and killed their cat.

Sophie Stiles and her partner Nathan Symons, both 22, at first thought their one-year-old cat Benji had been hit by a car when he returned to their home at St Mark’s Road, Salisbury at about 6pm last Tuesday.

The cat’s stomach looked misshaped and he was in pain so the couple, who have an eight-month-old daughter, Ava, took him to Endell Vets in Endless Street, where an x-ray showed he had been shot with an airgun.

Miss Stiles, who works for a telecom firm in Romsey, said: “We never thought he could have been shot. His stomach looked all caved in and we thought he must have been hit by a car. It’s so upsetting.”

Benji was treated at Endell but his injuries and a subsequent infection meant he couldn’t be saved.

Horrified vet Jo Langford said: “This wasn’t someone just taking a pot shot. It was obviously done with malicious intent rather than as a scaring tactic. The cat would have been in pain.”

Ms Langford said the surgery sees a handful of cats each year that have been shot. “It is something that isn’t common but unfortunately it isn’t unusual either,” she added.

“It could be kids having a pot shot or people annoyed by cats getting in their gardens, but this is not the way to go about it. Squirting them with a water pistol works.

“For many people a cat is a part of the family, for some older people it is all they have and something like this is extremely distressing.”

For Ms Stiles and Mr Symons, who have another cat, Louis, the incident also means that the money they were saving to spend on their little girl’s first Christmas has gone on vet’s bills.

The incident has been reported to police and PC Ian Pedliham is appealing for anyone with information to call him on 101 or Crimestoppers