PETA is offering a $5,000 reward to help nab a local cat killer

Cat killings seem to be on the rise in metro Detroit and local animal shelters have been offering big rewards to help nab the purr-petrator. 

Now, the People of the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who can help them catch the person who tortured, killed, and tied a local family's cat to a tree limb.

In a press release PETA says last Wednesday a family in Taylor discovered their cat, Zsa Zsa Maroney, had been choked and mutilated, her legs bound together with string. The organization is hoping to assist in the arrest and conviction of the cat's killer.

"It takes a dangerous lack of empathy for others' suffering to cause the terror and agony that this cat experienced when she was tortured, choked, and killed," PETA Senior Director Colleen O'Brien said in a release. "PETA is urging anyone with information about this case to come forward now, before someone else gets hurt."

PETA also urges cat owners to keep their pets indoors.

"In addition to being hurt by a cruel person, cats who roam outdoors risk contracting communicable diseases; getting lost, injured, or hit by an automobile; or being snatched up by "bunchers"—people who steal dogs and cats and sell them for use in experiments," the release stated.

Anyone with information about Zsa Zsa Maroney's killer can contact Crime Stoppers at 800-SPEAK-UP.