A NATIONAL charity has offered a £1,000 reward to help find the evil animal hater in Abergavenny who spiked sausages with nails reports ANDY SHERWILL.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, is a UK-based charity dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals.

The organisation has warned that animal abusers are likely to escalate their behaviour unless they are stopped.

The Chronicle revealed in our January 10 edition that two dog walkers were praised by a local vet for their vigilance in finding more than forty mini cocktail sausages that had been spiked with nails in the Llwynu Lane area of Abergavenny on Friday, January 4.

The incident has since come to the attention of PETA and in collaboration with Gwent Police the charity is offering a reward of up to £1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who spiked cocktail sausages with nails and left them near playing fields for animals to eat.

The deadly bangers were found on a popular dog-walking route.

Each sausage had eight or nine nails embedded in it.

PETA is urging Abergavenny residents to keep a watchful eye on their animal companions. Because animals cannot report incidents of abuse against them and can do little to fight back, they are the perfect 'practice' victims for violent people.

The charity point to historical documents which show that past incidents involving cruelty to animals regularly appear in the records of serial rapists and murderers.

Young killers Mary Bell, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables as well as serial murderers Ian Huntley, Thomas Hamilton (the Dunblane massacre), Fred West, Dennis Nilsen, Ian Brady and Raoul Moat all started out by deliberately harming animals.

"It is imperative that any community faced with such horrific abuse of animals take measures to find the culprit or culprits and stop the violence", says PETA spokesman Ben Williamson.

"Animal abusers are a danger to everyone – they take their issues out on whoever is available to them, human or non-human."

Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to contact the police, in confidence, on 101. For more information, visit PETA.org.uk.