A WOMAN has been left traumatised as she watched an RSPCA officer kill an injured fox and dispose of it in a garden.

Sarah Hanif, 26, spotted the animal in a bad way in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, November 2.

The fox was dragging itself along Toller Lane as its back legs were hurt, according to Ms Hanif.

She quickly Googled what to do and rang the RSPCA.

She said: "I Googled what to do as I had no idea and I really wanted to help it.

"It clearly said on the website to call the RSPCA, which I did.

"So the man I spoke to said he's getting someone to come out to help.

"I thought they would be coming to save the animal, maybe take it back with them, bandage it up and get some rest to return it back into the wild soon."

But, when the RSPCA officer arrived after 3am, the fox was killed.

Ms Hanif says she was horrified and felt particularly upset to see the body "chucked" into somebody's garden.

She added: "I just thought they would remove it themselves.

"One man said she would take it away. She left the animal there to prey off.

"Obviously I was confused. The woman rang and said 'I should have taken the animal away'

"It was also traumatising because I was just waiting two hours.

"She didn't even look at the animal before anything.

"She just came and said 'I'm going to kill the animal'

"I felt bad for even calling her, but when they just came, I just felt it was the wrong thing.

"I know she did it to take it out of its misery, but I don't like the way they did it.

"I was watching when she did it. She didn't even say to turn around and don't watch.

"She just picked it up and chucked it.

"At the end of the day, it was a living thing. I've never seen anything like it."

A RSPCA spokesperson said: "We save thousands of wild animals every year. Sadly this fox was very obviously in pain after suffering a severe injury to his back legs, making rehabilitation and release not possible so emergency euthanasia was the kindest option.

"Our officers are trained to carry out emergency euthanasia of wildlife to prevent animals suffering longer while waiting for a vet who may be some distance away.

"Moving the fox would have caused it more pain and suffering so our officer explained what was about to happen, we are sorry if that warning was not understood and our officer called to apologise in person for any upset caused.

"We are incredibly grateful to this kind woman for staying with the fox and, like her, we are sorry there wasn’t a happier ending for the fox in this case."

With the dead fox sat in someone's garden, a traumatised Ms Hanif said she was told what would happen next.

She added: "She said to me that she'd get the council to take it away."

But Ms Hanif said when she rang the RSPCA, she was told nothing had been logged on the system.

The 26-year-old returned to the garden on Tuesday, November 5.

But she said the fox's body was nowhere to be seen.