The city of Sacramento is offering a $12,000 reward for information about the person or people who beat, shot, and hanged a puppy, in what animal control officers are calling the worst case of animal abuse they’ve ever seen.

A local resident discovered the 4-month-old dog’s body hanging from a tree near a bike path in the California capital. Chief Animal Control Officer Jase Huggins told KTXL that the puppy had sustained fractures “from nose to tail” before being shot with a BB gun and hanged from her leash.

He added that veterinarians had described the dog’s liver as looking “like hamburger meat”.

“It’s a horrific case. It's probably the worst one I've seen since I’ve been here working for the city,” Mr Huggins said.

Authorities were concerned about the risk the abuser posed to other animals, and even humans. Mr Huggins told the Sacramento Bee that research has linked animal cruelty to other forms of violence, like child abuse and domestic violence.

Officials initially offered a $7,000 reward for the identity of the perpetrator, but have since raised it to $12,000.

“We have to catch this person ... We have a really high concern when we see this amount of violence perpetrated against a defenseless animal like that,” Mr Huggins told KTXL. “That that person is capable of committing violence against another person, another child and another animal.”

The maiming, mutilation or torture of an animal in California can be prosecuted as a felony, and is punishable by up to three years in jail or a $20,000 fine.

•Text courtesy of The Independent, photo KTXL