A Capel St Mary dog walker whose three golden retrievers savaged a cat to death has been told two of his pets must be destroyed.

Roland Tanner-Tremain, of Days Green, Capel St Mary, pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to comply with control orders relating to his retrievers, India and Rushley.

The 61-year-old also admitted three charges relating to the dogs and their mother Sydney being dangerously out of control when he took them for a walk in the village last month.

South East Suffolk Magistrates Court heard that in a statement given to police the cat’s owner Jodie Baxter described the aftermath of the attack on her 15-year-old silver tabby Stig.

It read: “The man got hold of the cat and shook him as if he was trying to get him to come back from the dead and was poking him saying ‘come on puss, you are all right’.”

Prosecutor Colette Harper said India and Rushley were put under control orders on March 18 last year by the magistrates’ court after a catalogue of incidents in which they had attacked dogs and sheep. As part of the orders they were to be kept muzzled and on leads in public.

At around 8.30pm to 8.45pm on October 2 the retrievers and their mother Sydney, who was not involved in the previous incidents, were walking unmuzzled and on extendable leads.

They saw Stig in grass beside a footpath in Snowcroft and attacked him.

Mrs Harper said Ms Baxter heard the screams of her cat and went outside to see it being “ripped apart” on the path outside her home. Her elderly mother-in-law tried to kick the dogs away.

Tanner-Tremain initially walked away after the cat had been killed, the court was told.

When challenged the self-employed plumbing and heating engineer offered to buy a new cat for Ms Baxter and dispose of Stig or to pay for him to be taken to the vet.

Mrs Harper said: “The family were obviously horrified.”

The court heard Tanner-Tremain originally thought Stig had been a rabbit after Sydney saw something lying in the grass.

District Judge Celia Dawson said: “This was an extremely nasty offence. It would have been very, very distressing for the owner of the cat that was killed, not just because she heard what was going on, but because she to deal with the aftermath of her quite clearly badly mauled cat.”

The judge ordered the destruction of India and Rushley and made Sydney subject to a contingent destruction order if she showed the same behaviour again.

Sydney must be muzzled in public and kept on a non-extendable lead in future.

Tanner-Tremain was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £665. He must also pay Ms Baxter £200 compensation.