A Winnipeg mother is worried that her five-year-old son may never recover from the trauma of the horrific sight of his pet cat after it had almost been beaten to death.

The cat, Tiggy, had been missing over Thursday night, but had been returned to their yard on Kilbride Avenue Friday.

"(Joshua) came in screaming, saying, 'Come here, Tiggy is bleeding!'" Tammy Jackson said Sunday. "He (Tiggy) gave these godawful screams and was crying in pain, and he tried to bite me.

"He had a broken eye tooth, a broken jaw, his nose was broken, he had bumps on top of his head causing his eye to pour out blood. His back was broken down by his tail because he couldn't walk. He was in so much pain that the vet had to give him something just to calm him down."

The cat had to be euthanized.

"I am sickened by this," said Jackson, who was planning to report the incident to police.

To help Joshua get over the trauma, Jackson took him to the Humane Society where they found a five-year-old cat and a two-month-old kitten he named Tiggy.

On Saturday, small pets in cages were taken from a private yard in the same neighbourhood and were almost beaten to death as well.

"Who can do something so horrible? I'd like to find these individuals and do the same thing to them," said Jackson, who warned others in the neighbourhood to keep an eye on their pets.

"I can't even let my cats out into the yard now."

Such perpetrators need to pay for their abuse, said Lynne Scott, founder of Craig Street Cats.

"I don't know if there's been a spike in abuse but people are more likely to report it now than in the past," she said. "We need better enforcement of the animal cruelty laws. There's already stiff fines and incarcerations on the books but it's very rare for someone to be punished for this.

"Police have the power to do something about this but it tends to take a backseat to dealing with people and the court system tends to deal lightly with them. But animal abusers tend to become people abusers."

Anyone with information about these incidents is urged to contact Winnipeg Police, the Winnipeg Humane Society and/or Paw Tipsters.

Police are aware of the incidents but are awaiting the official reports before an investigation begins, said WPS spokesperson Const. Jason Michalyshen.

"﻿We absolutely would encourage anyone to notify police or the Humane Society should they encounter these types of situations; we'll certainly gather the information we can and do our best to assist."

jim.bender@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @bendersuntwitter.com/bendersun