A woman in a Beijing neighbourhood is caught on video abusing a kitten

BEIJING - A video showing a couple holding down and tossing a kitten in a water puddle has drawn flak from Chinese netizens who saw the footage.

The video, which went viral on Chinese video websites, Batong and Tudou, shows a woman in a red blouse holding the black and white kitten by its tail. In the four and a half minute video, she can be seen attempting to keep the kitten's head underwater in a puddle of muddy water. Whenever the kitten tried to crawl out of the water, she would hold the kitten by its scruff and keep it in the puddle.

Midway through, a larger cat appears in the video to rescue the kitten that is now thoroughly soaked. When the cat manages to get the kitten to crawl its way to the other side of the puddle, and away from the woman, a man shows up, picks up the kitten, and tosses it back into the water again.

He does this for another two times even after the kitten manages to crawl out of the water, and after the third time, the woman catches the kitten and begins torturing the kitten again.

All this while, the larger cat, which was presumably the kitten's mother, was seen trying to come to the rescue of the younger animal.

According to Chinasmack.com, the footage was filmed in a Beijing neighbourhood and the abuse went on for about half an hour before the couple finally left the kitten in an underground basement next to the water puddle. However, the website reported that the kitten was nowhere to be found two days after the alleged abuse happened.

Residents and security guards from the neighbourhood said they did not recognise the supposed abusers. Some resident also speculated that the kitten did not die, and had probably crawled away.

She catches the kitten by its tail and tries to hold it underwater.

The kitten tries to swim out of its predicament.

But the woman does not let it go

She dunks the kitten back into the muddy water.

And keeps it held down.

The kitten manages to free itself from the woman's grasp, and swim to a brick in the middle of the puddle.

A larger cat appears in the footage and appears anxious to rescue the kitten.

The woman then stands up and frightens the larger cat away.

At this point, a man in a pink T-shirt appears on the other side of the puddle.

He picks up the kitten which has made it to that side, and tosses it back repeatedly into the pudddle. But the kitten, which manages to swim out, gets caught and is tossed back in again.

On his third attempt, he tosses the kitten back to the woman.

The woman holds onto the kitten and continues her mistreatment.

Chinese couple tosses kitten into puddle