The RSPCA has been accused of acting unlawfully after seizing a family’s pet cat - which was then put down against the owners’ wishes – in an official review which described the charity’s actions as a “travesty”.

The 16-year-old Turkish Van, named Claude, was taken away from Richard and Samantha Byrnes by RSPCA inspectors after a neighbour raised concerns about the animal’s appearance.

It was destroyed even though Mrs Byrnes tearfully begged animal inspectors to wait until her children, aged 12 and 14, could say goodbye to the animal they had known all their lives.

Now an official review conducted by Stephen Wooler, the former HM Chief Inspector to the Crown Prosecution Service, found the RSPCA had failed to disclose material to the Byrnes in a subsequent animal cruelty prosecution, The Times (£) reported.

The RSPCA’s actions also provoked a hate campaign against the family, the unpublished report found.

The charity told the owners they would be taken to court – however evidence was unable to establish any more than "the possibility of suffering whereas the criminal law is concerned with what can be established beyond reasonable doubt", Mr Wooler’s review said.