Miley Cyrus mauled by cat

Singer Miley Cyrus is nursing her wounds after she was injured by a vicious cat.

The 23-year-old animal lover's pet turned on her on Monday (04Apr16), and left the Wrecking Ball hitmaker scratched and bloodied.

Miley shared a photo of her forehead injuries with fans on Instagram, adding a caption that read: "f**ked up by a pussy cat f*******ck".

Cyrus shared two other snaps, including a close-up image of her bloodied scalp and a picture of deep, long lacerations on her tattooed forearm, with the expletive "F*******ck" written in the captions alongside cat emojis.

The former Hannah Montana actress has been an animal advocate for many years and she recently backed a campaign to end the hunting of lions in South Africa.

Posting a petition on Instagram last October (15), Cyrus invited fans to sign the appeal to protest the practice of breeding lion cubs to be killed for sport.

A message posted alongside the petition, aimed at the South African Department of Environmental Affairs, read, "Baby lion cubs... are bred every year for no other purpose than to be shot by tourists.

"These 'Blood Lions' are taken from their mothers... and are hand reared by their owners who tame them, so they are easier to kill... They are sent to a game reserve where they are stuck in small, crowded pens with dozens of other cats. Pictures of the lions are then taken and put on the Internet so that tourists from around the world can pay thousands of dollars to claim them as the victims of their next hunt in a practice known as 'Canned Hunting'."

Cyrus' support of the campaign to ban the inhumane practice helped garner hundreds of thousands of signatures.