A HORRIFIED boy has watched as a neighbour allegedly threatened children and beheaded his kitten in front of him.

Police claim the 41-year-old Kangaroo Flat man committed the atrocity because he thought the 11-year-old had jumped on the roof of his car on Saturday night, near Bendigo.

Police were called to Dean St in Kangaroo Flat when the neighbourhood dispute flared up about 9pm, but events took a grisly turn when the man allegedly grabbed the boy’s pet and twisted its head off.

Senior Constable Danny Wolters said several people were on the street at the time of the incident, including the 11-year-old boy.

“It’s a terrible thing to witness,” Constable Wolters said.

“We’d seen the kitten on the road that had its head ripped off.”

A witness claimed the man grabbed the kitten after screaming abuse at bystanders.

“He was threatening to slice the throats of the children that lived in the house," he alleged.

“Because he couldn’t do that, he grabbed their kitten and just wrung its neck and did it to the point where he’d actually pulled the cat’s head right off and threw the cat’s head on the road…and then threw the body in the gutter,” the witness claimed.

“It was scary to see him do that to a baby cat.”

“Pulling, twisting, turning and just ripped its head right off, it was horrifying. An innocent little baby cat that had done nothing wrong.”

The man was charged with aggravated animal cruelty and making threats to kill but was initially arrested for being drunk.

He was bailed to face court in March.

The incident comes a week after another Bendigo resident threatened to kill pet cats if they wandered onto the person's property.

Notices posted in a Bendigo shopping centre warned people that some of their prized pets had been trapped and would be killed.

The threats drew condemnation from animal welfare groups.

Originally published as Boy watched as pet kitten beheaded