A cat has been burned during a bonfire in Co. Antrim

A family's cat was burned during a bonfire in Parkhall Estate, Co. Antrim. The owner of the cat, Daryl McGreevy, has spoken about how spectators noticed that the cat, named Kitty, on top of the bonfire before it was lit. Daryl says that onlookers and passersby pleaded with the people responsible for the bonfire to remove the cat, but they continued to pour petrol over the bonfire material and set it alight. Luckily, the cat survived the ordeal but sustained serious burns and is currently being treated by a local vets office. According to The Belfast Telegraph, Daryl told the BBC:

"My partner got in contact with a couple of her friends and they said that people had seen the cat on the bonfire before they poured the petrol on it and instead of going and getting the cat off it, they poured the petrol round it and lit it. "She's really badly burned. We have to wait a day or two to see - because she's a fully black cat - how her ears and her skin and her paws are. "I actually went up this morning just to clarify that the cat was ours and she was in a bad state. They said in a few days time they'll know what's actually going to happen with her."

Daryl continued saying:

"If it had been a dog on the bonfire they would have got up and got the dog down. It just happens to have been a cat and not one of them gets up to get it. "They sat and cursed and said a load of bad things when the cat was on the bonfire, whenever there were kids and adults telling them to get the cat off the bonfire."