A YouTube video that allegedly shows a Penticton teen biting the head off a rat has yielded no charges, says a SPCA spokesperson.
Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. SPCA, said a veterinarian wasn't able to conclude whether the animal suffered from the video, which is no longer available on YouTube.
"If there was any way to put that case before a court, I would have tried," she told The Huffington Post B.C. Thursday.
"If an animal, no matter how gruesomely it dies, if it dies instantaneously, or conversely, if you can't prove they suffered pain, then there's no offence."
The video, titled "Kid bites rats head off" and posted on YouTube in March 2012, apparently shows a teenage boy sitting on an aquarium holding a rat in his hand. Voices in the video are heard saying, "do it" or "don't do it," CHBC reported.
The video first came to the SPCA's attention when it was forwarded to the Edmonton Humane Society, the Penticton Western News reported.
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