Police identify teenagers from animal cruelty video showing concrete being thrown at a kitten

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Police have identified several youths who were seen in a video of a kitten being stoned.

Animal rights group Paw Justice posted on its Facebook page in an appeal to identify those responsible.

In the footage, believed to have been filmed in Invercargill, New Zealand, a girl throws the kitten to the ground before a block of concrete is thrown at it several times.

"Put it on the concrete or else it won't f***ing die," one person can be heard to say.

Police are now in the process of interviewing the offenders, who are aged between 11 and 16 years old, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Constable Chris Wakelin told the paper his staff were "sickened" by the video.

"We have also worked with the SPCA to remove three further kittens from the home of one of the offenders," he added.

In a Facebook post, Paw Justice said: "We made the very hard call to post an horrific video of a kitten being stoned to death. We did that because we know sometimes the hardest truths are the only ones that get results.

"You cannot un-see what you have seen, and we cannot undo what has been done to that little kitten. Animal abuse is an ugly, messy reality and we believe the fight must be made public. That is where YOU come in.

"And sometimes, the fight get results."