Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Amazon delivers millions of packages every day

A Canadian woman was rather perplexed when pepper spray and a stun gun arrived at her door instead of the cat dish she ordered from Amazon.

Jacynthe Cardin returned the weapons, which are prohibited in Canada, to the police in her city of Montreal.

Amazon says the "unfortunate incident" was the result of a bar-code scanning error and they will work to correct it.

The online retailer is sending the cat dish - for her pet George Michael - post-haste.

"This was an unfortunate incident and we are taking this matter very seriously to ensure it doesn't happen again," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.

"We will continue to work directly with the customer to resolve this incident."

Ms Cardin said she did not know what to do when the package arrived. It was sitting on her doorstep and anyone could have taken it.

"I just took another look at the box to be sure it's my package, but it's my name on it and my address," she told CTV News.

Both pepper spray and stun guns are considered prohibited weapons in Canada, which means it is illegal to carry them.

So Cardin took them to her local police station, where they will be destroyed.

Amazon believes a warehouse employee in the US put the wrong label on a box containing the weapons.