This still photograph, taken from the New Zealand Herald, shows a puppy being held still before being tortured and beheaded.
Graphic video footage showing the torture and beheading of a 1-year-old dog has been circulated among teenage school students.
The attack on the helpless dog has been labelled "New Zealand's worst" by animal welfare activists. Police are hunting those in the video.
The sickening images show a man tying the red nose pitbull to a tree while three people, including a woman and a child, look on and laugh as it tries to escape.
The man bashes the puppy's head several times with the back of an axe before taking more than a minute to cut off its head with a machete.
The puppy yelps in pain while the man jokingly says "dog on death row, dog on death row".
This petition is to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key; and the Minister of Justice, the Hon. Simon Power, and the powers that be, to impose the maximum sentence on the perpetrators of this horrendous crime, once they are apprehended, tried and convicted. There needs to be a message sent to this country, and the world at large, that animals are living things like the people of this beautiful country, and cruelty such as this will NOT be tolerated.
