Police are investigating after a family’s cat was ripped apart by a pack of dogs.

Gideon and Julie Groom and their daughters Isabella, two, and Avie, five, were out when 12-year-old Alabama was killed in a garden near their home by what was believed to be up to nine hunting dogs.

But a neighbour and their children, who notified the family, saw the whole incident.

The Grooms were told that five 20 to 30-year-old men, with eight or nine dogs that included bull terriers and lurchers, had been seen in the Rawdon Cragg Wood Conservation Area and let their dogs savage Alabama, who was left “in tatters” on a neighbour’s doorstep.

The incident, which has left the Horsforth family distraught, has been reported to police.

A spokesman for the force said: “We received a report of a cat having been attacked and killed by dogs that had gone into the garden of a house at Horsforth.

“Officers searched the area to try to trace the five men and nine dogs reported to have been involved, but could not find them.

“The local neighbourhood policing team has been informed.”