Horrified social media users asked why pet owners let their cats run loose

Footage has emerged of a pet cat with a four-kilogram wallaby in its mouth

Startling footage has emerged of a cat with a dead wallaby hanging from its mouth.

The video was published on Facebook by NT Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Monday.

It has already amassed hundreds of comments and thousands of shares.

The clip shows the marsupial happily bouncing around in bushland in the Northern Territory.

But seconds later, a cat emerges with the short-eared rock wallaby hanging from its jaws.

Startling footage has emerged of a feral cat with a dead wallaby hanging from its mouth

The clip shows the marsupial happily bouncing around in bushland in the Northern Territory. But seconds later, a feral cat emerges with the short-eared rock wallaby hanging from its jowls

Social media users were horrified, with many asking why pet owners let their cats run loose.

'This makes me so angry!' said one person.

'If you can't keep your cats indoors don't bloody have them! To many animals are endangered due to people not caring!'

'People who own dogs have to keep them in an enclosed yard and walked on a lead and clean up their poo, yet you have people with cats who let them roam everywhere on the streets,' another pointed out.

Others had a more hard-line approach.

'A good cat is a stuffed one,' someone replied.

'Poor animal and exactly why my cats are inside,' said another.

Social media users were horrified, with many asking why pet owners let their cats run loose. 'This makes me so angry!' said one person. 'People who own dogs have to keep them in an enclosed yard and walked on a lead and clean up their poo, yet you have people with cats who let them roam everywhere on the streets,' another pointed out. 'A good cat is a stuffed one,' someone else replied

Director of Terrestrial Ecosystems Dr Graeme Gillespie told Daily Mail Australia he posted the video to make people aware of the damage cats are doing to native wildlife.

'Cats are a huge problem in Australia,' he said.

'They're extremely efficient predators and can kill up to 30 or 40 native mammals and reptiles creatures in a single night.

'That would keep them full for around 24 hours, before they'd start hunting again.'

Director of Terrestrial Ecosystems Dr Graham Gillespie told Daily Mail Australia he posted the video to make people aware of the damage cats are doing to native wildlife

Dr Graeme said it's not unusual for a cat to kill a creature of a similar size, and the idea of feral cats being larger than domestic cats is a myth.

'The cat in the video is just a regular tabby cat,' he explained.

'This one is a feral, it looks exactly the same as someone's pet.

'The fact is, people don't know what their cats get up to at night when they're roaming around, and there is evidence to suggest cats are just as happy running around an enclosed backyard where they can't escape.'