A £1,000 reward is being offered to help track down the person responsible for mutilating and dumping two reptiles in St Albans woodland.

Campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation, has today (Thursday) announced a £1K reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for mutilating a royal python and a monitor lizard and abandoning their bodies in a wooded area.

Earlier this week, the Herts Advertiser published a story online about the RSPCA appealing for information after the snake’s and lizard’s disembowelled bodies were discovered by a passer-by in a wooded area on Park Street Lane in How Wood on Sunday, January 10.

The reptiles, each a metre in length, were found with clean incisions along the underside of their stomachs, and their internal organs were missing.

Labelling the grisly find as a cruel act, PETA associate director Elisa Allen said: “It’s imperative that any community faced with a sadistic and violent act like this take measures to find the culprits and bring them to justice.”

She added: “Animal abusers are a danger to everyone and must be caught before they act again.”

On Monday (18), RSPCA inspector Rachel Smith said: “We don’t know for sure if the reptiles had already died before being cut open or indeed if the person who dumped them was the same person responsible for cutting them, but they may have suffered a great deal.

“Reptiles have specialist needs and it is both sad and disturbing that these have been dumped in the woods.

“The monitor lizard looks like an Indonesian species, though it is difficult to identify from the remains. These types of monitors are not very commonly kept as pets so we are hoping that someone will know someone in the area who has, until recently, owned such an animal.”

Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to contact the RSPCA on 0300 123 8018.

PETA (www.peta.org.uk) is a UK-based charity dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals.