A joint effort of websurfers helped identify a Polish teenager who filmed himself torturing a kitten, then posted the video on YouTube.

The 16-year-old made a film in which he fires the kitten from an agricultural blower towards a dog, but outraged viewers managed to identify the farm with the help of the licence number of a car caught on the video. The author was found through a popular social networking service.

The teenager now faces juvenile court.

The kitten, which fortunately survived, was taken to a shelter. (ek/mmj)