Animal rights groups have hit out at BoohooMAN for sharing a 'sickening' video of a rat being kicked to mark the start of the football season.
The Manchester-based online fashion retailer shared footage of two men kicking the animal and battering it with a wooden plank.
The video was captioned with "The Premier League starts tomorrow - who's got Gary from construction in their fantasy team?".
It was posted to the BoohooManOfficial account on Instagram at the start of August.
More than 6,000 people viewed the video before it was taken down.
Aside from this having very little to do with fashion, the clip's brutal and needlessly cruel nature also horrified social media users.
Curtis, who copied it to Twitter, said it was 'sick'.
He tweeted several Boohoo Twitter accounts and said: "You are sick individuals posting this animal cruelty video in relation to a football related 'joke'."
Animal rights groups were quick to condemn the video, with some saying they were “sickened” that a supposedly reputable company would find animal abuse funny.
Dominika Piasecka, spokeswoman for The Vegan Society, told the Mirror : "We are sickened by the cruel behaviour in the video and by the fact that it has been reposted for ‘humour’ by what we thought was a reputable company.
"Incidents like this highlight the casual attitude we as a society have towards animal suffering that The Vegan Society seeks to challenge.
"Rats are highly intelligent animals who exhibit pain avoidance behaviour and no animal deserves to be exploited for humour, food or any other purpose."
PETA’s director, Elisa Allen, added: "This video shows an utter disregard for decency, a total lack of empathy, and the sort of men who value bullying over brains.
"Rats have the capacity to experience pain and fear, just as humans do.
"They make good mothers and are sensitive and resourceful.
"They giggle when they're tickled and show empathy – something the men in this video clearly lack – for other rats in peril.
"They deserve our protection, as all animals do, and PETA urges authorities to move swiftly to track down these callous men before more sentient beings endure a similarly violent fate."
Boohoo has been contacted for a comment.
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