A DEVASTATED cat owner has described the horror of finding her little girl's pet cat seriously injured after being caught in the deadly steel jaws of a gin trap.

Shocked Jodie Barratt, aged 33, found the injured animal in agony in a nearby garden with the trap still attached after hearing her desperate cries.

Violet, who is just a year old and belong's to Jodie's seven-year-old daughter, Aliza, may now have to have her paw amputated. The trap not only inflicted a severe wound but also snapped a bone and the family, from Bardsley, are waiting to find out her fate this week.

Jodie suspects the gin-trap - a mechanical device designed to catch an animal by the leg or head using spring operated jaws which is banned in the UK - was deliberately set by a cat hater.

Just days earlier Jodie says Violet was shot by an air rifle and a pellet lodged in the same paw.

Jodie heard the cat screaming at around 7am on Saturday morning (July 28) and dashed to see what was going on.

She found Violet stuck in the contraption on a neighbouring roof.

Appalled by the cruel and vile act, she said: "It was absolutely shocking.

"I heard the screaming and I had honestly not heard anything like it.

"The cat had dragged herself up some steps from a nearby garden and onto the roof next door. That is where I found her.

"She had managed to drag her paw in the trap all of the way up the steps and onto the roof.

"It was horrible."

"The trap has broken her leg and she could possibly have to have it amputated because the trap was on her paw that long because we couldn't get it off."

Violet was taken to an emergency veterinary hospital in Whitefield where she underwent treatment and was kept in overnight.

She is now back at home and is being nursed by Aliza and Jodie.

Although they tried to keep the horrific incident from Aliza, telling her Violet had just injured her paw, a public outcry in their community after Jodie posted the sickening pictures on Facebook meant they had to reveal what had happened.

"We obviously haven't gone into too much detail but we had to be honest about it," said mum-of-two Jodie, who is now facing a vets bill of around £1,000.

"She's quite grown up for a seven-year-old and she took it quite well but the other night she had gone to bad and came back down absolutely heartbroken, worried what might happen next.

"She understands Violet might lose her paw but we've looked online at how cats manage with three legs and she's prepared for it.

"I just can't believe someone would do this.

"I have never heard pain like the sound she was making when I found her in the trap.

"We have had Violet since she was a kitten. She is just over a year old now.

"I don't know why anyone would want to hurt her."

Jodie has reported the incidents to both the police and the RSPCA.

A spokesman for GMP said: "Police were called to a property in Bardsley at around 11am on Saturday, July 28, after a cat was found to have caught its paw in a snare.

"Enquiries are ongoing alongside officers from the RSPCA."