Army says it's investigating sheep-beating video

The Army says it's investigating a disturbing video posted online that allegedly shows soldiers beating a sheep with a baseball bat in Afghanistan.

Army spokesman George Wright said that a criminal investigation was launched in November by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) after the video was posted on the Internet.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had posted the video in November and sent a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh, but re-publicized it again last week in the wake of a viral video of Marines allegedly urinating on corpses in Afghanistan.

PETA said it never received a response from the Army. Wright said the Army became aware of the PETA letter after reading about it and printing it from PETA's website. 

Wright said the investigation is still open, and investigators have analyzed the video, which was posted on the website LiveLeak.com. 

Wright said Army CID has asked for assistance from other military law enforcement agencies because some men in the video could be from other services.

“It goes without saying that the behavior displayed on the video is not in keeping with Army values,” Wright said.

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