Palestinian man hangs a mouse after it ate his wages. [Photo: Courtesy]

-Adapted from Daily Mail

A Palestinian man has been accused of an horrific act of animal cruelty after posting a picture on Facebook apparently showing him torturing a mouse that he claims ate his wages.

The picture, posted by a Facebook user from Gaza, shows the mouse suspended by its legs with rope from a ladder.

It has been claimed that the man was punishing the mouse for destroying two bank notes worth 200 Israeli Shekels (around £35) that were in his closet.

According to Daily Mail, the man said that he had just been handed his weekly wage and hid it in the cupboard for safe keeping.

But many people are claiming that the picture and the Palestinian man's story is a fake and that it appeared on several other websites as a joke earlier in the year.

Nevertheless the image provoked a strong reaction when it was picked up by the Gulf News website, with most readers appalled at the man's actions.

One reader from the United Arab Emirates posted on the site: 'As desperate as the man must be to lose his money, torturing a helpless animal is not a good thing to do and not a solution.

'Another mouse may come and what will he do then? Repeat this stupid act!?!'

But some questioned the outraged response of others claiming that people were more concerned about the mouse's fate than the plight of the Palestinian people.

Similar actions landed a London teenager in hot water earlier this year.

Andre Yankey, then 19, was spared jail by magistrates in July after making a homemade film showing him butchering a mouse.

Yankey called himself a 'mouse killer' as he used a power tool to slice the rodent open and drill into its eye.

The personal trainer said on camera the mouse would be 'terminated with The Blade of Doom' as he tortured and eventually killed it.

But he was arrested when he sent the footage to a friend who was so disturbed by what she saw that she called the RSPCA.

He was given a 12 week prison sentence suspended for 12 months and a two-year ban from owning animals.