The Battery Park City Authority has shot down an anonymous gift of a $750,000 sculpture by an artist who once murdered a mutt in a snuff film.

The agency snubbed the offer of two whimsical bronze lions and several cubs by world-renowned sculptor Tom Otterness for the Battery Park branch of the New York Public Library.

Animal lovers had protested the proposal because Otterness, at age 25 in 1977, produced “Shot Dog Film,” in which he chained and killed a small shelter pooch.

But the reason given for the rejection was the “lack of transparency” because the agency would not have control over the work or know who commissioned it.