Exotic-looking pet cats like the one kicked by footballer Kurt Zouma in a horrifying Snapchat video could be banned in the UK.

Widespread fury over the shamed West Ham defender’s antics has prompted calls for hybrid Bengal animals to be outlawed.

The 27-year-old player was fined two weeks’ wages by the club, amounting to around £250,000, and the RSPCA seized his two cats after the abuse emerged.

With the backing of TV animal expert Chris Packham, the Wildheart Trust has launched a campaign for a legal ban on the breeding of exotic cats with domestic cats.

In an open letter to environment secretary George Eustice, the charity called on the government to ‘end this cruel form of hybridisation’.

They wrote: ‘Motivated by the “designer pet” trade, fuelled by social media, the breeding of exotic felids and domestic cats (known as F1 hybrids) should have no place in the 21st century.

‘It is no less cruel than breeding a wolf with a poodle. This practice is also an escalating problem – evidenced by the dramatic rise in rescues of F1 hybrid cats in 2021.

It shouldn’t be legal to breed exotic wild cats with domestic cats here in the UK . . . but unfortunately , it is .

Please add your name to @WildheartTrust’s open letter , calling upon the UK Gov to ban this cruel trade → https://t.co/vpzDvcBqlG pic.twitter.com/l7EQmfHzSb

‘We have a moral responsibility to treat animals with dignity and not as commodities to be corrupted for pleasure or commercial gain.

‘Urgent legislative action to make this form of hybridisation illegal will prevent the suffering of individual animals caught up in this trade and mitigate against future threats to wild populations of exotic felids.’

Earlier this month, Zouma issued a grovelling apology after his club condemned the video, insisting the cats were ‘loved and cherished’ by his family and his ‘behaviour was an isolated incident that will not happen again’.

Calling the footballer’s actions ‘appalling’, Mr Packham said: ‘We have a moral responsibility to treat animals with dignity and not as commodities to be corrupted for pleasure, or commercial gain.’

Celebs have been quick to buy hybrid Savannah cats, with high profile owners including Justin and Hailey Bieber, who spent £25,000 on their cat Sushi.

The animal was temporarily rehomed after it went missing two years ago in the Hollywood hills.

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