AN ANIMAL rights charity is offering a £2,000 reward to catch the person responsible for beheading a seven-month-old kitten.

Neo was found dead in Brackley in Northamptonshire on Tuesday, January 28 with injuries consistent with a notorious cat killer.

Siân Louise Parsons, the cat's owner, said in a public Facebook post: "This is probably the most heartbreaking post I’ve ever had to write but last night [Tuesday] my kitten Neo was killed up the Tree Estate, Brackley.

"He had his head cut off by someone. He was only seven months old and didn’t deserve such an awful fate. I am completely broken right now.

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"I want the person responsible caught so no one else has to suffer like this."

Pet owners in Oxfordshire last week condemned the act as 'sick' and 'evil' after the post was shared on Pets Lost and Found in Oxfordshire.

In an update Ms Parsons said South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL) had examined Neo and they believed the black cat may have been a victim of the UK Animal Killer, also known as the Croydon Cat Killer. 

This person is thought to be responsible for more than 400 cat deaths who were either dismembered, decapitated and mutilated, with the attacks starting in the Croydon area in 2015, 

Ms Parsons wrote: "Imagine all those families who have suffered horrific loss like myself and more to come if the person/s are allowed to keep getting away with it."

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In a Facebook post, SNARL wrote: "The 'UK Animal Killer' is known to return to areas and in April 2016 another cat was found four minutes away by car with the same mutilation injury, so we will be leafleting this area to raise awareness."

PETA is now also offering a reward of up to £2,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.

Director Elisa Allen said: "It's imperative that any community faced with cruel and callous acts such as this take measures to find the culprit and bring him or her to justice.

"Animal abusers are a danger to everyone – they take their issues out on whomever is available to them, humans or other animals – and must be caught before they act again."

The charity said history showed cruelty to animals regularly appear in the records of serial rapists and murderers.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call police on 101 reference 20000055760.