A heartbroken cat owner said her beloved pet was disposed of before she could say goodbye to it – after it was killed on a busy Sprowston road.

Louise Goddard's cat Buster, who would have been one in two weeks' time, was hit by a car near her home on Wednesday, November 3.

She was at work at the time, but a neighbour called Broadland District Council to come and collect the dead ginger tomcat.

Miss Goddard, who is a nursery nurse in Great Yarmouth, said that another neighbour spoke to the worker who came to collect Buster and was told that the council would scan the animal to see if it was microchipped, which it was, and then notify the owner of what had happened.

However, Miss Goddard said she was not contacted by the council and she only found out that her cat had died later that night from a neighbour. By that time the council offices were closed so she asked her father-in-law to collect Buster at 8am the following morning,

However, when he arrived Buster had already been disposed of and there was nothing for him to collect.

Miss Goddard, 21, who lives with her partner in Lindsay Road, said: 'I was not even given 24 hours to claim him or get to say goodbye to him.

'If it were not for my neighbour knowing what had happened, I would be none the wiser and would be putting up posters and searching for him night and day. This must happen to so many people.

'I paid good money to have him microchipped in case this ever happened because he was my beloved pet and he meant the world to us.'

A spokesman for Broadland District Council said: 'Losing one's pet is a sad event and it is understandable that this lady is distressed, but we can only think that there has been a misunderstanding here, because we do not have the equipment to scan dead pets to establish whether they are chipped.

'We do look for any identification details such as a collar or name tag and would contact the owner if the contact details were found. Unfortunately, none was found on this particular pet.

'Our contractor acted promptly to pick up the cat once it had been reported to us, and because we have no obligation nor facilities to store dead pets, the body was hygienically disposed of.'