CHARITIES in York are backing plans to curb "trigger happy" airgun users who maim and kill scores of cats each year.

Pet cats in the city have been targeted by heartless gun users who deliberately shoot at the animals.

Now the RSPCA is backing a Private Member's Bill calling for the legal age for unsupervised use of low-powered airguns to be raised from 14 to 18.

RSPCA chief superintendent Kevin Degenhard said the society investigated 779 cases of animals that had been wounded or killed by airgun users.

In July, Gillian Charlton's cat, Smudge, was shot in the face with an air pistol.

At first Mrs Charlton, of Ampleforth, thought Smudge had been hit by a car.

She said: "I thought it was a hit-and-run and took her to the vet's.

"He operated and found a pellet in the right-hand side of her face, between the jaw and the eye."

Smudge's jaw was dislocated and her right eye damaged in the deliberate attack, though she has subsequently recovered.

But Mr Degenhard said the number of cases involving airgun attacks was probably much higher than the incidents reported to the RSPCA.

He said: "Worryingly, this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

"Many animals, including wildlife, will simply crawl away and suffer an agonising death."

He added that because the pellets were small, animals were not often killed outright, suffering for longer as they died from their injuries. A spokeswoman for the Cats Protection League in York said they backed the proposals outlined in the Private Member's Bill.

She said: "We see many cases of cats injured or killed in airgun attacks and it seems to be getting worse.

"The Cats Protection League would like to see the age for these weapons raised to prevent so many animals being maimed and wounded.

"We support any initiative which will help stop cruelty to cats."

Updated: 12:28 Thursday, September 20, 2001