Police are hunting a group of hikers who surrounded a wild boar before pushing it off the side of a Spanish mountain in these sickening images.
Civil Guard officers have made a public appeal for information on the group of seven walkers, who taunt the animal with sticks before forcing it to its death.
The vile video was shot on a popular trekking path known as the Cares Trail in Spain’s famous Picos de Europa mountain range inland from the country’s northern coast.
One of the hikers can be heard shouting: ‘A little more and it will fall’ as a friend prods the animal with a stick.
As it plunges to its death, smashing against a huge rock on the way down, he adds: ‘That’s it’ as the others in his group appear to congratulate themselves on their actions.
The wild boar is thought to have been injured prior to the men coming across it as they were on their mountain walk, making the images even more disgusting.
The footage has already been seen by hundreds of thousands of people.
The Civil Guard’s Nature Protection Service Seprona said in a tweet: ‘Do you know the people who pushed a wild boar off a mountain in the Picos de Europa National Park.
‘Made sure it doesn’t go unpunished.’
A spokesman admitted the public’s help would prove crucial in determining who the men were because working out their identities from the video on such a popular hiking route ‘wouldn’t be easy.’
Fernando Nava, a councillor for the local Cabrales town hall said: ‘The images are really cruel. What they did was barbaric.
‘We will try to find those responsible so they pay for what they did, because this is a crime and savage and killer behaviour.
The vile video was shot on a popular trekking path known as the Cares Trail in Spain’s famous Picos de Europa mountain range inland from the country’s northern coast
![One of the hikers can be heard shouting: 'A little more and it will fall' as a friend prods the animal with a stick until it plunges over the edge](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/17/08/467075B800000578-5092037-image-a-15_1510908668311.jpg)
One of the hikers can be heard shouting: ‘A little more and it will fall’ as a friend prods the animal with a stick until it plunges over the edge
![The injured animal plummets off the cliff edge, smashing against a huge rock on the way down](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/17/08/467075B300000578-5092037-image-a-16_1510908675709.jpg)
The injured animal plummets off the cliff edge, smashing against a huge rock on the way down
‘It appears the animal had been injured in a previous incident because you can see it can hardly defend itself, which makes this case all the more awful.’
Animal support groups also attacked the hikers, although last night it emerged they would probably face only a fine if they were tracked down.
Furious Antonio Rodriguez Lerin raged: ‘I’m more certain every day that we have to disappear so the world can become a better place. Us human beings are a scourge.’
Marta Batakuda said: ‘I would put these men on the edge and let them fall, but I would hit them on the head before they went over to make sure they didn’t get up again.
![The boar somersaults wildly down the mountain, bashing into large rocks on the terrifying plunge down the Picos de Europa in Spain](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/17/08/4670759F00000578-5092037-image-a-17_1510908684349.jpg)
The boar somersaults wildly down the mountain, bashing into large rocks on the terrifying plunge down the Picos de Europa in Spain
‘What shame they cause me.’
Animal defence party Pacma added: ‘Although we would want to report this incident as an obvious case of animal mistreatment, the Spanish Penal Code doesn’t protect wild animals like wild boars.
‘We need your support to continue working towards changing the law so this type of behaviour doesn’t go unpunished.’
The Picos de Europa – literally the Peaks of Europe in English – are a range of mountains less than 15 miles inland from Spain’s northern coast. They form part of the Cantabrian Mountains.
The Cares trail, which runs along caves, bridges and pathways sculpted in the rock, is considered one of the most beautiful natural sites in Spain.