Police have launched an investigation after a bear cub was filmed being thrown out of a tall tree before being bundled into a sack in horror footage.
The shocking incident took place near the village of Novaya Igirma, in the Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia, earlier this week.
The clip shows the small bear clinging to a pine tree as one of the men climbs up and tosses it to the ground from a height of at least a dozen feet.
Another man is then seen grabbing the dazed cub by the scruff of its neck and forcing it into a sack as it writhes in distress.
Cops were alerted after the footage surfaced on Telegram, where it caused widespread fury.
A spokesperson for the Irkutsk Region police said officers had identified the area and urged the men involved to report to the nearest station.
They were later tracked down and identified as three men who worked at a local production base who claimed they spotted the bear cub alone near the site where children were playing.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk said the men told officers they were worried the mother bear might be nearby and decided to return the cub to the forest further away.
The clip shows the small bear clinging to a pine tree while a man stand behind it before tossing the animal to the ground
Another man is then seen picking up the animal and grabbing the dazed cub by the scruff of its neck
The small bear is held up to the camera in the shocking footage
The man cruelly stuffs the cub into a white sack
She said the animal had been frightened by the men when they tried to catch it and had climbed the tree out of fear.
Volk added that the bear cub was later released back into its natural habitat.
The bear was unharmed despite the rough handling, police confirmed.
It comes after a group of six North Carolina fools were caught on camera tearing bear cubs out of a tree to take selfies, causing at least one of the cubs to be taken to a rehabilitation center.
Six people in Buncombe County pulled the three bear cubs out of a tree near Berrington Village Apartments last month.
Video obtained by WLOS shows the group carelessly grabbing the cubs out of the tree to pose for photos with them.
After capturing the first cub, one of the women appears giddy, jumping up and down while holding the bear and getting ready to take photos with it.
The group continued to attempt to drag the other two cubs, while one of the women dropped the cub as she was passing it to another person.
The terrified cub fled from the group, running along the fence to get back to its siblings.
Ashley Hobbs, a North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission special projects biologist, said when she arrived they found one cub described as being very wet, cold and alone for quite some time.
