HEARTLESS: The picture of two individuals posing with a hanged puppy has stirred the passions of animal rights' activists

Enraged by the photo spread widely via email, Malaysian Animal Rights Society president N. Surendran said he had lodged a report at the Brickfields police station last weekend.

He described it as one of the worst cases of animal abuse he had ever seen in Malaysia.

The photo, which has been posted on several blogs and social networking sites, showed two individuals gesturing with an obscene one-finger salute while one was holding a hanged puppy.

Expressing hope the culprits are caught quickly, Surendran said: “How anyone can do this to a puppy which can’t defend itself is beyond me. These two are criminals and mentally unstable. I hope the police will throw the book at them so they can be made an example of.”

Surendran said he might organise a public gathering to push for results.

“It might be too late for that puppy. But it will send out a message to deter crazed individuals from taking part in such torture.

“This sort of behaviour is bad for the country's image and will get worse if the authorities let it slide.”

Surendran said his lawyer friend, Sasha Lyna Abdul Latif, forwarded the picture to him after she stumbled upon it through the Twitter social networking site.

“I found the pictures when Lisa Surihani re-tweeted it on her Twitter account,” Sasha said.

Actress Lisa Surihani told The Malay Mail she re-tweeted the photo on her account but did not know the persons in the picture.

"My intentions were to highlight the cruelty towards animals portrayed by the two individuals. I am strongly against animal cruelty."

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Selangor said they were doing their best to uncover the identity of the individuals in the photo.

“It is not easy as it came from an online source. We are doing what we can and hope the public will be patient.”

ANIMAL cruelty is no stranger to communities across the globe. Here are a few that made headlines this year:

● Aug 12: A family's pet lamb is stolen by thugs in England. The lamb, named Lily, is abducted in the middle of the night and butchered on the street, where she is discovered the following morning. The culprits are still at large.

● Sept 20: Briton Mary Bale throws a cat into a wheelie bin where it is trapped for 15 hours before being discovered by its owner. Her actions were caught on CCTV. She is fined £250 (RM1,220).

● Sept 29: Pig farmer Keith Barnett admits to seven charges of animal cruelty after it was found that he neglected his pigs, leaving them with no food or water, to the point where they began eating each other. He was banned from keeping pigs and fined £880 (RM4,290).