WARNING: DISTRESSING AND GRAPHIC CONTENT
Tourists in Kazakhstan have been filmed beating a seal unconscious on a beach, supposedly so children could take pictures with it, according to witnesses.
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The Daily Mail reports that the shocking scenes were filmed in the village of Kuryk, which is located on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.
The clip, which was shared online yesterday (7 July), shows a group of men surrounding a deal that had swum close to the shore, attacking it with sticks and boulders.
People also gather round to watch the defenceless seal get beaten, but no one appears to do or say anything to stop the assault.
Local media say the poor seal was knocked unconscious in the brutal attack, with an unnamed witness saying: "They beat the seal up until it passed out.
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"Then they pulled it out of the water so that children could take pictures and have fun.
"After that, they threw the motionless body back into the sea. I don't know if it survived."
According to the Daily Mail, another similar incident was also caught on camera this week, having been shared on Instagram by Kazakh model Yevgeniya Mukasheva.
The footage, which was filmed in the city of Aktau, around 43 miles from Kuryk, shows tourists throwing stones at a baby seal after it came towards them.
Mukasheva wrote in the video's caption: "Did people really have a complete lack of brains???
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"If an animal comes close to you, it means it trusts you.
"How could you throw stones at the defenceless pup and laugh? Have you lost your mind?!"
She added: "When will we already understand that it is necessary to value and care for every being on the planet? What more pain do we need to strike so that we understand that compassion and compassion must be at the head?"
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Many of Mukashev's 10,000 followers were equally disgusted by the distressing clip, with one person commenting: "What a horror!!! He is a little [seal] too... He came with confidence."
Others condemned the attackers for assaulting the seal in front of children, who they said could 'get used' to such cruelty.
"What kind of people will they grow?" one Instagrammer said, adding: "How can you ridicule a helpless trustworthy little seal?"
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Featured Image Credit: Roksana Panashchuk