Animal rights group PETA has criticised the cult show 'Making a Murderer', claiming it has swept animal cruelty under the rug.

It claims filmmakers have omitted specific details about how Steven Avery, at age 20, doused the family cat with lighter fluid before throwing him onto a fire.

PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk said: "Too often, cruelty to animals is swept under the rug, as seems to have happened in Making a Murderer".

"Avery was convicted of misdemeanour cruelty to animals for killing the cat and served only nine months".

"Fortunately today, agencies, including the FBI, recognise cruelty to animals as a precursor to further violence (the FBI tracks animal abuse like it does homicides), and people who are cruel to animals are often prosecuted".

"The filmmakers were wrong to gloss over this important information, and viewers are rightly upset".

The ten-part documentary has even made it as far as the White House - with almost 130,000 people signing a petition, asking the Obama administration to pardon Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey for their alleged involvement in the murder of Teresa Halbach.

However, only federal criminal convictions can be pardoned by the US president and he cannot pardon a State criminal offence.

The documentary tells the story of Steven Avery, a man wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and who served 18 years in jail before being released due to DNA evidence.

He then went on to sue the State - and within two years he was arrested again, this time for murder.