A DISTRAUGHT cat owner has made an impassioned appeal for thugs to stop attacking her cats which, she claims, have been kicked, poisoned and almost choked.

Pat Baker, of Hayes Road, Wolverley, said it was "unreal" how ill her cats had been over the past three weeks due to the alleged attacks.

She now fears one of them will be killed unless the culprits can be stopped.

"Nearly three weeks ago, my first cat, Sophie, was taken to the vets with extremely bad sickness and diarrhoea and the vet said she could have been poisoned," explained Mrs Baker, adding she had taken it to the PDSA Hospital in Quinton, Birmingham.

"Four days later, the vet reckoned my second cat, Pebbles, had been kicked in the head and side and we've got a third cat, Tami, who was kicked a couple of days after that."

She said that after recovering from her suspected poisoning, Sophie had entered the house "choking" last Friday.

"Someone had opened up her collar and fastened it as tightly as possible so we had to rush and get the collar off her as quickly as possible," she said.

"I'm just worried one of them is going to get killed at this rate."

The 34-year-old, who suffered a spinal injury in a car accident, said all three cats had been rescue animals and meant "the world" to her family.

Pebbles and Sophie were saved from drowning by Mrs Baker and her husband, Trevor, as kittens and are now 15 months old.

Mrs Baker said her 11-year-old daughter Dana had been "heartbroken" by their injuries.

Peter Allen, chairman of the Kidderminster and District branch of the RSPCA, responded to Mrs Baker's claims by saying his organisation would actively pursue the case in the hope of resolving the problem.

He warned the culprits - if found - faced prosecution and explained the branch had previously experienced problems of a similar nature in other areas of the district.

"The RSPCA will not tolerate cruelty of any nature to animals and we are determined to prevent it - which is, of course, what the RSPCA stands for," he said.

"It could result in prosecution if the culprits are found."