A KITTEN has become the third pet to have been shot in a matter of weeks in St Helens, raising further concerns about animal cruelty in the town.

Hayley Wilson discovered family pet Billy had been blasted with an airgun after taking him to a vet with blood coming from his leg.

X-rays from vets revealed the ten-month-old black kitten had a stainless steel pellet lodged in his thigh – and would have died had it ripped through a main artery that was just millimetres away.

The position of the pellet means it cannot be removed with surgery – and the pet is not out of danger yet because it could still move naturally and damage the artery.

Mrs Wilson, aged 33, a mother-of-two from Garswood, told the Star: “It was awful – and my daughter (12-year-old Ami) was heartbroken when we were told he had been shot.

“She was devastated and thought he was going to die. The vet said he was a millimetre from death. They don’t know how the pellet missed his vital organs and it has stopped just short of a major artery.

“They can’t remove the pellet because of where it is makes it too dangerous .

“If it does not move over the next couple of weeks he should be okay, the vets have said. He is not out of danger.

“Why would someone do this? If he has upset someone why can’t they just splash him with water or something?

This is the third cat shooting the Star has reported on in the past five weeks.

In June the sickening images of Spike the cat that, who survived being shot with a crossbow bolt in the head, were circulated by media around the world.

Weeks later the Star reported how another cat had a leg shattered in Parr after being shot with an airgun.