COLD Aston resident Christopher Tilly fears that someone in the village is waging a vendetta against cats.

He voiced his fears after a series of brutal attacks on both his own cats, Muffin and Crumpet, and those belonging to friends living nearby.

In two assaults cats have had their tails broken at the base of their spine, seemingly by someone bending them to breaking point. Other animals have limped home bearing the marks of heavy blows, possibly from being kicked.

Mr Tilly said: "This is very worrying and you have to ask yourself what kind of a mentality would it take to do this. We don't know whether other people have had a similar problem, but if there is somebody out there who is really disturbed they ought to be found."

He said the attacks had been going on for about a year, but added: "Recently it has become much more frequent. It started at the beginning of the year with our friends' cat, which is very friendly. We saw it walking one morning with its tail just trailing along behind it and when they took it to the vet the tail had been broken right against the body and had to be amputated."

Now his own cat, Crumpet, has been similarly attacked. Although still in great pain, its tail may yet mend.

Mr Tilly added that the cats had also come home on several occasions in great pain. At first they all thought it was due to cat fights, but he said: "We now realise these were blows of some sort, because no cat would cause that kind of injury. To add to the puzzle our cats are extremely shy of strangers, so how somebody has got within striking range of our two, I don't know."

Police are now investigating the attacks and Mr Tilly is urging anyone whose cats have been attacked to report it to the police, who are also keen to hear if anyone knows who the culprit may be.

The attacks come several weeks after the Journal reported a series of incidents in Stow where cats had been shot by someone with an air rifle.