HEARTLESS school pupils were caught kicking a hedgehog around like a football in a 'disturbing' act of violence. 

A volunteer at Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue has said they saw a group of pupils, one of whom was wearing a uniform from Fitzharrys School in Abingdon, effectively killing the tiny animal for fun before school yesterday morning.

Fitzharry's has responded to the claims, but said the two names of children involved given to it by the charity are not recognised on the system as pupils at the school. 

The charity said a group of around four to six boys were spotted kicking the creature. 

Taking to Facebook yesterday, a representative from the charity said: "They decided to take it upon themselves to use a hedgehog as a football. 

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"I am not going into any greater detail that that because quite frankly why would you kick a hedgehog across the floor - it's A. disturbing, B. extremely worrying and C. it makes us wonder what we are doing here day in day out trying to rescue this species - which are an endangered species by the way." 

He explained how he had identified some of the children and sent messages to their parents on social media. 

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He said he could see that the parents had read the message but had apparently decided to ignore it.

He added: "To kick any animal is against the law. It is animal cruelty.

"These children were not doing it just once.

"Because by the time Stacey, one of our volunteers had arrived, they were still kicking it." 

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