Cat mauled to death by hunting hounds
**Update 07/07/2021: A man has been charged by Devon and Cornwall Police in connection with this incident - John Lanyon Sampson, aged 55, of St Buryan, is due to appear before Truro Magistrates’ Court on 22 July where he will face charges of criminal damage and being the owner/person in charge of a dog dangerously out of control in a private or public place. In response the owner of the cat, Carly Jose said: “Me and my children are relieved that the hunt master has been charged. Nothing will bring Mini back or take away the trauma Mini and we have been through."**
A pack of hunting hounds have mauled a pet cat to death in Cornwall.
14-year-old old Mini was attacked by the “out of control” hounds on a housing estate in West Cornwall on Saturday.
A video of the incident, taken by a neighbour, shows the rescue cat being tossed about by the dogs.
A huntsman is then seen picking up the body of the cat and walking towards a fence where he’s understood to have thrown it over the fence.
Mini’s owner Carly Jose told ITV News: “I feel absolutely devastated... my children cried themselves to sleep last night.”
She said she heard an “almighty racket” and once outside the house she started shouting at the hunt staff to “get them away, get them away.”
Carly can’t bring herself to watch the video as it’s too “disturbing.”
Her neighbours have told her what it shows and what they witnessed including seeing the huntsman “scoop her [Mini] up and threw her as far as he could to get her in the hedge.”
The video shows the huntmaster running off with his hounds after they’d attacked the cat and then saying that he would return to the house but needed to “sort the hounds out” first.
Carly Jose says a member of the hunt did come back and offer her some money for her loss which she refused telling the visitor that what happened was “absolutely disgusting.”
A spokesperson from the Western Hunt: “The Hunt is aware of events that took place on Saturday, 6th March, while the hounds were being exercised in an area where they are taken routinely, without incident, by officials of the hunt.
"The hunt has been in contact with the cat owner to apologise unreservedly for the distress this has caused and is also helping the police with their enquiries.
"Incidents of this nature involving hounds are incredibly rare due to the professionalism with which the hounds are managed, however the hunt has taken this matter very seriously and is reviewing their procedures to prevent any reoccurrence.”