A 19-year-old man has turned himself into police after admitting to pouring gasoline onto a cat before setting it on fire.

The badly burned animal was found tied up with a rope in an Indiana cornfield near the town of Crawfordsville, near Indianapolis.

Noah Riley told investigators that after seeing several social media posts about the cat he wanted to ‘get the issue resolved.’

The brutal act was only noticed after a retired firefighter Steve Wright spotted flames coming from a field at the back of his house, on Wednesday night.

The animal was soaked in gasoline and also had a firecracker on top of her, which didn’t go off.

‘It was very, very quiet. And it was moving slightly but being bound it couldn’t move much. And it was just the look in the eye of the kitten,’ said Mr Wright to Fox59.

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It’s thought the cat only survived because she had been lying in a puddle that helped to calm the flames.

The cat was taken to Purdue Animal Hospital for treatment but now faces a long recovery.

‘Her ears are shriveled. Her fur is gone down to the skin,’ said Misha Anderson, director of the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County.

‘She landed in a mud puddle. So I think that slowed down the fire or at least dampened her fur which caused the only flames to be gasoline so all the fur is mostly singed.’

The Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County is paying for the cat’s medical expenses which are already nearing $1,000, but the organization is accepting donations from people who wish to help.