TWO groups of children beat up a cat sheltering in a tree.


Mum-of-three Heidi Stanley chased away young attackers who tried to stamp on the cat’s head and dropped it out of the tree in Bearwood, in Bournemouth, at the weekend.


She’s taken in the brown moggie – nicknamed Kitty – but says she’s “disgusted” the RSPCA and the Cats Protection League aren’t helping out.


Mrs Stanley, of Monks Way, said: “I heard a lot of noise on Friday and looked out the door.


“I saw one boy kick the cat and it also looked like he had his foot up like was going to stamp on it.”


The children ran off and Kitty ran back up the tree, where she had been sitting since the previous day.


Cats Protection representatives told Mrs Stanley, 30, the cat would come down of its own accord.


But on Saturday she was still there, and Mrs Stanley saw a girl up the tree push the cat to the floor.


Another girl was standing at the bottom of the tree.


Mrs Stanley ran out shouting to the girls, aged around six and nine, to leave the cat alone.


“As it landed you could hear it thud on the floor,” she added. “It was just awful.”


She wrapped shaken Kitty in a blanket and gave her sanctuary in the shed, but can’t keep her as her husband and eldest son are allergic.


Cats Protection and the RSPCA said they could not look after Kitty, but when Mrs Stanley complained an RSPCA inspector came to check her over.


Posters are being put up in an attempt to find Kitty’s owners.


She has a yellow collar and is thought to be around nine-years-old.


Rob Hughes, coordinator of Cats Protection’s Bournemouth and District Branch, said: “It is always upsetting when we have to turn cats away.


“Unfortunately we only have a limited number of spaces.”