Welcome Bay residents of a quiet cul-de-sac are mourning the loss of two pet kittens that were viciously attacked and killed by three dogs on Saturday morning.

The dogs have now been captured and impounded. They killed the kittens when they cornered them one by one on a property at Falcon Drive.

'Jar' on right and two other alleged cat killers are now impounded.

The youngest kitten, 1-year-old Missy, was killed after being torn apart by one of the three dogs and three-year-old Oscar was fatally wounded and died later.

Claudia Kansley woke to the horrible cry of her neighbour's kitten, Missy, being ripped apart by three dogs at about 8.30am on Saturday. The dogs are well-known to the area.

'It was just absolutely going for it. So I got up and saw three dogs just tearing it apart.”

Missy's owner Carmen Bidois says the family was ‘absolutely devastated' when they heard the news, particularly her 10-year-old son.

''We were devastated, she's our family pet. He's still a bit teary.”

She says she will use the incident to educate her two children of the dangers of animals roaming free in the area.

'Part of this is we will be able to show them that it's not tolerable for these dogs to be roaming around and we will follow through.

'They have obviously have got a killer instinct in them. '

Carmen's husband and about four neighbours from Falcon Drive chased the dogs and managed to contain them on a nearby property on the top of Waitaha Road.

Claudia says when they got to the top of the street they were approached by a man driving a four wheeled drive vehicle who interfered by distracting the dogs that were able to make a getaway.

'He told us to leave them alone because they are valuable hunting dogs.”

She says the man appeared to be purposely trying to stop them from catching the dogs.

'It was a really long morning.”

The dog ‘Jar' has a large tumour hanging from the side of his body and Claudia says when she recognised the trio she contacted Tauranga City Council and was upset that only one person was sent.

Council animal services team leader Brent Lincoln says the guard is fully trained and conducted correct safety techniques to lure the dogs into capture, but he was unsuccessful due to the nature of the dogs.

Brent says luring dangerous animals by using food is the initial training technique to catch the dog.

'That's a normal method. But because of the nature of the dogs they weren't co-operating.

'It's really difficult to catch a roaming dog that doesn't want to be caught.”

Council has contacted the owner of the black dog ‘Jar' and is conducting further investigations into Saturday morning's incident.

The three dogs involved in the killing are believed to be unregistered.