Updated at 11:15 a.m.: Revised to include a statement from UNT.

A University of North Texas football player has issued an apology for his "bad taste" after posting a video on Snapchat that depicts three dogs mauling a raccoon.

Khairi Muhammad, 20, can be heard laughing in the video, which shows three dogs attacking a caged raccoon. Later, as the raccoon tries to flee, the dogs rip into it and fight over the body.

Recordings of the video posted to Twitter have been viewed more than 50,000 times and drawn criticism.

"It's not 'nature' when somebody purposely traps an animal and lets 3 dogs kill it while recording and laughing about it," Olivia Daughtry wrote on Twitter.

"I can understand training to trail and hunt your dog but this? For fun?" another Twitter user commented.

Muhammad, a DeSoto High School graduate and junior at UNT, posted an apology on Twitter on Sunday night.

"[I] sincerely apologize for the insensitive nature of the content," he wrote. "I understand that I represent a lot of people and my actions also reflect on them. I will learn from this and use it to make better decisions in the future."

A UNT spokeswoman said the incident and recording "do not represent the values that UNT encourages" and would be used as a "teaching moment" by the athletics department.

"We have high expectations for our community members to behave in a manner that positively represents the university [and] our athletics program plans to use this as a teaching moment."

Causing a dog to fight with any other animal is a misdemeanor in Texas, SPCA of Texas spokeswoman Maura Davies said.