PET lover left horrified by a sickening attack on a family dog has put up a £500 reward for information that leads to finding the thug responsible.

The Daily Echo reader came forward after reading that a mindless brute repeatedly stamped on a dog’s head before the dog crawled away “like a spider” in a busy Hampshire town.

The 67-year-old woman from Hampshire, who does not want to be named, has offered the reward to anyone who can give information to police about the crime which leads to a conviction.

She said: “It was with absolute horror I read the article about the poor dog.

With this in mind I would like to offer a reward for the apprehension of this thug.

“It takes a different species to do this to a poor animal.

“Someone in Eastleigh must know who committed this vile crime and he must be brought to justice.”

Police are appealing for information after the thug was seen by passers-by dragging the frightened dog across Nightingale Avenue in Eastleigh.

The man, thought to be in his twenties, was with a woman, a toddler, who was crying and a baby in a pushchair.

When the man, who is about 5ft 5in with olive skin and very dark eyebrows and hair and spoke with a British accent, reached the pavement, he stopped and savagely stamped on the dog’s head at least five times.

An eyewitness said the dog – thought to be a white pitbull mastiff cross – was booted so hard “it collapsed like a lump of meat on the floor” and then was described as “trying to walk like a spider.”

One woman tried to stop the cruelty and followed the family across Sparrow Square but lost them when they went down a track towards Woodpecker Way on the Nightingale Estate.

The man wore a beige jacket and jeans. The woman was about 5ft 1in and very slim.

She had her hair tied back tightly and was wearing a purple top with jeans.

The incident happened on Friday, July 13.

Anyone with information should call police on 101.