Police are hunting sick thugs who cut off a cat’s head and tail - and dumped its partially skinned body in a park.

Family pet Socks was horrifically mutilated in the attack in Tameside, which an experienced vet has described as the worst case he had ever seen.

The animal’s distraught owner has now released shocking images of its injuries in an appeal to find the attackers. We have pixelated part of the image as it is too gruesome to show.

Primary school teacher Claire Collins made the horror discovery in Dukinfield Park after Socks failed to return home on Sunday night.

After a desperate overnight search, she was distraught to find her beloved pet’s mutilated body in the park near King Street on Monday morning. Its head and tail had been cleanly severed from its body.

Claire, 28, said: “I don’t now how anyone could do this. She was a lovely cat, not vicious in any way.

“She was about 18 months old. Sunday afternoon, about 4.30pm she was outside our house in Dukinfield. Later my partner and I looked for her but there was no sign of her. We live on a main road and we looked up and down it in case she had been hit by a car.

“There have been a few previous occasions when has stayed out all night, so in the morning I looked for her again.

“I found her in the park at about 7.45am. It was very upsetting. They had skinned her - it’s tortured. There are quite a few cats in the area and I will be making sure neighbours know.

“I hope the picture of what they did to her will help find those that did it.”

Claire has had Socks from a kitten and said she rarely stayed out doors for more than a couple of hours.

She took the body to her vet, Gavin McCoubrey, at Tameside Vet Clinic in Ashton-under-Lyne, who described the case as ‘the most horrific’ he had ever seen in a 25-year career.

Mr McCoubrey told the M.E.N.: “I saw the cat last week when Claire brought it in for its annual innoculations.

“It was a lovely cat. I have been a vet for 25 years, including working for the RSPCA and this is the worst case I have ever seen of cruelty.

“It was a clean cut to remove the head and tail. It was horrific. The skin had been removed from the left hind leg. There is no way this could have been done by an animal. The owner was left devastated.

“The cuts to remove the skin and head and tail were precise. It is psychotic... freaky.”

Socks was named after her distinctive white markings on her paws and lower legs.

GMP confirmed they were had been alerted to the incident and were investigating.