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Owner Rebecca Atkinson, 31, was distraught enough after Percy was taken but she was horrified to discover that footage of the animal being tortured, set on fire and killed was briefly posted onto Instagram.

The disturbing video showed three naked men holding Percy in the bath, threatening to cut her fur with scissors and trying to shave her with a razor.

It went on to claim they then set fire to Percy and threw her out of a window before killing her because she was in pain.

Rebecca, of Dawdon, Tyne and Wear, thinks that Percy was stolen by people coming back from a rave that was held in the woods close to her home.

She said: "We're absolutely devastated.

"It's just beyond belief and were more upset for the kids, because they were so attached to her.

"People just can't believe what's happened, saying they're pathetic excuses of human beings.

"I just want justice. It feels like we've lost a member of the family."

Rebecca believes Percy was tortured at a house party after she was stolen.

Rebecca and children Jessica, 14, Aaron, 10, and Brynn, four, are now keeping the rabbit's babies Shadow, Misty, Flash, Nibbles and Floppsy, alive by feeding them four times a day with kitten milk.

They had only had Percy for a month and thought he was a boy until he surprised them by giving birth.

Four people have since been arrested on suspicion of theft and criminal damage – two men aged 19 and 20 – and two boys aged 16, 17.

Police said: "We are investigating the theft and subsequent death of a white lionhead rabbit.

"The rabbit is believed to have been stolen from its hutch in the Dawdon area of Seaham, sometime between Friday evening and Saturday morning.

"Four men have been arrested in connection with this."