Two young girls heard a large dog rip their beloved cat “to pieces”, a distraught mother has said.

Family pet Izzie was sitting on mum Joanne Edwards’ doorstep in Sedgefield Crescent, Harold Hill, when it was approached by an unleashed, tanned lurcher.

“It picked up our cat in its mouth and walked to the front gate. We saw Izzie’s tail hanging out of its mouth. Within two minutes it ripped its insides out,” the 38-year-old said.

Her daughters Neve, two, and Brooke, 12, were on the doorstep when the mottled brown, black and white cat, was snatched earlier this month.

Miss Edwards managed to get the girls inside the house, so they did not see the attack on their two-year-old feline but they did hear what happened.

“They are so upset and tearful. They miss their pet,” she said.

The mum said the incident did not appear to bother the dog’s owner at all, although he should have kept the animal on a lead.

“The dog should be looked into as it’s dangerous and he didn’t seem to be a responsible owner,” she said.

“It’s got a taste for blood. It must have been trained to hunt, but the owner walked off and said, ‘I will buy you another one’. He took no responsibility at all.”

The cat’s killing is the latest incident in a spate of attacks on animals and humans by poorly controlled dogs in the area. Last month, three men were sentenced for possessing a “fighting dog” that was shot dead after it dragged a minicab driver along the street by his leg in Chelmsford Avenue, Collier Row.

That week, dog minder Edwin Day, 73, of Globe Road, Hornchurch, called for police action after two dogs he was looking after separately attacked neighbouring animals.

He said that a vet described one neck wound as an “attempt to finish off” another dog.

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