A FAMILY has been left distraught after their beloved pet was killed by a lurcher being walked in Nailsea.

Mandy Knapman, aged 49, was gardening in her home, which backs onto popular dog walking path the Haslands, on June 24, when she heard a woman shouting ‘let it go’.

When she looked over her fence she saw her six-year-old tabby cat Jasper in the jaws of the lurcher, which was on a lead.

On reaching the scene, Jasper was gone and Mandy, who works at Clevedon School, says the woman told her he had disappeared into her hedge and said ‘you can’t blame the dog, that’s what they’re bred for’.

Mandy and her two daughters, aged 21 and 17 years, looked everywhere for Jasper and two days later Mandy found his body in a hedge across the lane, opposite where she had been told he had ran.

Mandy said: “I think from the position I found him he died instantly in the lurcher’s mouth and was placed in the hedge, which is an awful thing to do.

“I told the woman at the time the dog should have had a muzzle on, it was not enough that he was on a lead because she had no control over him.

“In any case holding onto a lead and shouting ‘let it go’ is just not enough, this could so easily have been a child that had fallen and the dog would’ve pounced on it.

“If it’s a cost issue I am quite prepared to buy the woman a muzzle for the dog.”

Mandy has contacted North Somerset Council’s dog warden but was told there was nothing they could do because the animal was on a lead and not classed as dangerous.

Mandy added: “The woman told me Jasper had jumped out of the bushes and attacked her dog but he was well known in the area for sitting on fence posts so would certainly have ran up one out of the way of a big dog coming towards him.

“We are all devastated.

“Jasper was in his prime and although I am thankful that he did not appear to have suffered, it’s very sad.”