YOBS who attacked a pet rabbit with a spade left it so badly injured that one of its legs had to be amputated.

Tracy Bebb, 48, of Bishopdale Holme, Buttershaw, said she woke up to find her daughter’s rabbit, Chinny, had been removed from his locked hutch in their back garden and attacked.

Vets amputated the leg the next day.

Chinny was in one of three hutches which also house Miss Bebb’s five guinea pigs, which were also let out but not attacked.

The incident took place at around 11pm on Thursday, June 22.

Chinny, a one-year-old English spot rabbit, belongs to Miss Bebb’s daughter Emily, 17.

Mother-of-seven Miss Bebb condemned the louts and said she was disgusted by what had happened.

She said: “I think it happened with a spade that was in the garden. I was shocked when I found out what had happened.

“The vets said they have never known anything like this to have happened in Bradford before. It’s disgusting.

“They don’t know if he will be able to live on just three legs.”

“We are going back to the vets and he might still be put down if they think he won’t be able to manage to walk on three legs.

“The vets said usually they would put a rabbit to sleep, but with it being a baby, they have tried to save him.”

She said of the attackers: “They should not get away with it.

“You would not have done this to a human being, but they did it to an animal who can’t defend itself.

“Whoever did it must have come through the garden gate that was also locked.

“I’m worried that it will happen again and somebody else will try it.

“I locked the cages up but that didn’t seem to stop them."

MORE TOP STORIES

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “Police are currently investigating a criminal damage report after a rabbit was found injured outside a house on Bishopdale Holme, Bradford, on June 23. Inquiries are ongoing.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call police on 101, quoting crime reference number 13170289639, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.