A family left traumatised when their rabbit was stolen and beheaded has installed spikes and CCTV cameras to protect their remaining pets.

Chloe Baldwin, of Waterfields in Leatherhead, discovered her two-year-old rabbit, Tony, was missing from her garden on March 28. He was returned four days later, decapitated.

The 29-year-old is still convinced the killer is a person and not an animal and has taken matters into her own hands to prevent another incident.

Miss Baldwin, who now has four rabbits and two hamsters, said: "There have been no other developments or incidents, but we had taken measures to protect the garden.

"We are having CCTV installed within the next couple of days so if the same happens again we can catch them. We have had spikes put up all along the fence and have padlocks everywhere.

"In fact, our neighbours have put up extremely high fences now so nobody can get into our garden through theirs.

"All of these measures are costing us hundreds of pounds and it is ridiculous because I shouldn’t have to be doing this. It makes us looks like prisoners in our home, which is daft."

Miss Baldwin said her daughter Sarah, nine, who found Tony’s body, is starting to feel less scared, but that her relationship with the remaining rabbits has been affected permanently.

She said: "Confidence has come back, but it has only come back since we have had measures put in place so we feel a lot safer.

"There are still scars as there would be, but we have done all we can.

"The police have been patrolling the area more which has been great and it’s made us feel safer.

"But my rabbits are still petrified. I struggle to go near them now. The rabbits don’t want me to go near them. It takes me 5-10 minutes to get hold of one of them.

"I do still think that a person, not an animal, took Tony. There’s no way an animal would take a rabbit and then return it four days later.

"I’m now selling Tony’s hutch as there are too many memories. I’m constantly looking at it and thinking Tony should be in there."