An animal lover says she has been put off owning cats for ever after seeing three die on the roads in less than a year, and having a fourth injured after being shot at.

Jackie Rawstron, of Burnley Road, Accrington, says the “unbelievable” events came to a head this month after her five-month-old kitten was “wiped out” by a speeding car - less than a week after its mum was hit with a pellet from an air gun.

It is the third report of a cat being hit with an air gun pellet in the Hyndburn area since April.

Last month Darren Whewell called for urgent action to slow traffic outside his home on Lowergate Road, Huncoat after saying he had lost four cats to road accidents.

Jackie, who owns three dogs, a rabbit, four cats and chickens, fears that cats are not safe living in the area. She said: “I won’t be getting another cat now. It’s put me off having cats, what’s going on. You just wonder what’s next. I realise we live on a main road but to lose three cats in nine months is unbelievable.”

Jackie Rawstron, of Burnley Road, Accrington was angered after her cat was shot at with air gun on the road on September 16, 2017

Having already seen two cats killed on the main road in the past nine months, Jackie, who lives near Accrington Cemetery with husband Raymond and daughter Natasha, was horrified when she got home and Natasha told her black cat ‘Baby Girl’ had been shot.

She said: “I wasn’t in at the time. When I got home she said the cat had been shot. I thought ‘oh my God’. You can see the open wound on the shoulder with a pellet on it. Natasha said it must have happened in the cemetery. She saw her go in the cemetery and 10 minutes later she came back with that in her shoulder.

“You just wonder at the mentality of people that would do something like that. It’s beyond belief really. It makes you wonder if someone is going around with an air rifle and taking potshots at people’s cats.”

Baby Girl, cat shot at with air gun on Burnley Road, Accrington on September 16, 2017

While Baby Girl thankfully avoided serious injury, one of her kittens was less fortunate just days later when it was run over on Burnley Road on September 22.

Jackie, 48, said: “My neighbour was taking his dog out for a walk on Friday morning. He managed to catch my attention. He said ‘I’m very sorry, some idiot has come racing up Burnley Road and wiped it out.’

“I’m sick and tired of speeding drivers. It starts at 5 in the morning. They can be doing 60, 70, 80mph on Burnley Road.”

Police confirmed they received a report of a cat being shot at with a pellet near Accrington Cemetery on Saturday, September 16 at around 9pm.

Jasper, a two-year-old cat from Oswaldtwistle, who was shot with an air gun six times in April 2017