Instagram cat star Ponzu dies after boy yanked its leash in park

Beloved Instagram cat Ponzu has died after a 12-year-old boy yanked his leash in a park located in Brooklyn, injuring it and triggering a heart attack in the poor feline.

Ponzu - who had 23,000 followers on Instagram - was being walked by owner Suchanan Aksornnan, 34, and her boyfriend, when the boy approached the couple.

According to ChaRee Pim, a bystander who recorded the altercation, the boy tripped over Ponzu’s leash, before dragging the cat along the ground, and flinging him into the air. Because Ponzu had a heart condition, he suffered a heart attack and died at the scene.

As if that wasn’t horrific enough, the incident led to a violent altercation between Ponzu’s owner and the boy’s family.

“You don’t blame me, you’re the one who was wrong. Why did you take a cat [for a] walk?” the mother of the boy allegedly said, before physically assaulting the couple and their pets. “This is what you [get] when you walk you f*****g cat b***h!”

Footage taken from a cellphone shows Aksornnan being punched and kicked on the ground by a crowd of people. At one point, a man appears to pull her dog’s tail.

“Dear Friends – it is with an immense sadness and anguish that we bring you this tragic news: our beloved Ponzu died on Easter Sunday after suffering shock and injuries from an incident in our park,” Aksornnan wrote on Instagram.

“We are traumatized, lost for words, heartbroken. Our family got physically assaulted that day and there is a pending police investigation to find and charge the perpetrators who showed no empathy for animals nor humans,” she added.

Aksornnan’s boyfriend sustained a broken nose and needed surgery the next day.

NYPD have confirmed one suspect, described as ‘a white female Hispanic, 5’7, 200lbs, with red hair and a pony tail,” but no arrests have been made.