TWO men shot a neighbour's cat with a .22 air rifle during an afternoon's drinking session, Salisbury magistrates heard on Tuesday.

Mark Whitby (32) and Neil Panter (29) were fined a total of £600 and given a five-year ban on being involved with animals after Rusty, a female tabby cat, was left with two pellets embedded in her body.

Both men had spent the afternoon drinking in Panter's garden in Beaulieu Road, Amesbury, and decided to have some target practice shooting at biscuits lined up at the bottom of the garden.

When Rusty suddenly appeared in the garden Whitby fired at her, hitting her in the back.

Panter was inside the house using the toilet and when he came out Whitby looked worried and told him what he had done.

Panter decided to put the cat out of its misery and shot it again, the court heard, but Rusty survived and managed to crawl back into her own garden.

Panter, a civil servant and Whitby, a Ministry of Defence security officer and former dog handler of Hayford Close, Amesbury, both pleaded guilty to cruelly ill-treating the cat belonging to Beverley Barwick, of Beaulieu Road.