Young people feature heavily in a list of perpetrators who were cruel to animals in the past year.
The list is published by the SPCA. It instances 45 acts of neglect against domestic pets, wild animals and stock on farms.
SPCA chief executive Robyn Kippenberger says some were particularly worrying.
The list includes a Dunedin boy who tortured his neighbour's hens, two Kaikoura youths who bludgeoned seals to death and four boys in South Auckland who beat a puppy and threw it through a basketball hoop.
Another case cited was in Gisborne in which a man fed five live kittens to his dog.
Ms Kippenberger says she's disturbed young people feature so prominently this year.
She says the offenders can't hide behind their age.
