Girl Throws Puppies in River; PETA Offers $2,000 for Info on Video
NEW YORK (CBS) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has offered a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people behind the video apparently showing a girl or young woman throwing live puppies into a river.
"Animal abusers are cowards," PETA Manager Martin Mersereau said in an official statement. "They take their issues out on the most defenseless beings available to them."
In the 43-second clip, a young woman or girl with blonde hair, wearing a red-hooded sweater is seen grabbing six puppies from a white bucket and hurling them into a river.
At one point, someone can clearly be heard saying "whee!" while a black-and-white puppy is hurled into the water.
The video was posted on YouTube, but has been taken down. The video surfaced online earlier this week, igniting an angry online crusade to identify the woman.
"Find this dumb little b***h and throw her into a river," one person wrote on the notorious Internet message board 4chan.
According to the Daily Telegraph, some comments claim the girl is from the Central Bosnian town of Bugojno, which has a population of 50,000. PETA's press release states that web users believe that the video may have been filmed near the Vrbas River, which runs through Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"The public has good reason to be concerned," Mersereau said. "According to law-enforcement agencies and leading mental-health professionals, perpetrators of violent acts against animals are often repeat offenders who pose a serious threat to all animals - including humans."
4chan users are believed to have previously outed the British woman who was caught on tape apparently grabbing a cat by the scruff of its neck and dropping it in a garbage can before closing the lid and hurrying away down the street. Death threats against the alleged cat trasher were posted on 4chan and other online forums after the woman's name and address were apparently leaked online. She has since been given police protection.
PETA urges anyone with information about this case to contact PETA's Cruelty Investigations Department at 757-622-PETA (7382), extension 8037, or CIDinfo@peta.org.