Pictures have a emerged from China showing a mouse being tied up and forced to smoke.
The bizarre image shows a mouse tied spread-eagled with a lit cigarette, a cruel experience which it reportedly did not survive.
Horrific: The odd pictures were taken in China and posted online
Photographer Xiao Lin was quoted by news agency Rex Features that he was visiting a friend's house when he caught the mouse and decided to tie it to a window grid to make it smoke.
"My friend suggested that letting it smoke would be interesting," Xiao said, adding: "Seeing the cigarette burnt to the butt, the mouse looks very innocent."
Rex Features said that online comments posted in China said that Xiao was very cruel as the mouse did not survive. However, Xiao insists that he did the right thing."
A spokesperson for Peta told The Huffington Post UK the people responsible for the photos should not be allowed near animals.
"If these photos are real, then the people responsible for this sick stunt show a disturbed mindset and should not be allowed near any animals. The inability to empathize with the plight of the most helpless among us, the leering mercilessness of it, quite rightly horrifies caring people everywhere and is a cause for concern in the community.
"Research into criminology and psychology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals are likely to pose a danger to the entire community, and if we don't treat these acts of callousness with the seriousness that they deserve, we put the lives of animals and humans at risk," they said.