A German inventor says he's found a way to make cheap diesel fuel out of dead cats.

Dr Christian Koch, 55, from Kleinhartmannsdorf, said his method uses old tires, weeds and animal cadavers.

They are heated up to 572° Fahrenheit to filter out hydrocarbon which is then turned into diesel by a catalytic converter.

He said the resulting "high quality bio-diesel" costs the equivilent of $1.00 per gallon.

Koch said the cadaver of a fully grown cat can produce two-thirds of a gallon of fuel - meaning around 20 cats are needed for a full tank.

He said, "I tank my car with my own diesel mixture and have driven it for 105,000 miles without any problems."

Annelise Krauss of the Dresden Animal Protection Association blasted Koch's new diesel though, saying, "This is as bad as experimenting on animals."