Cat corpses are thought to be for dissection in anatomy class at high school which is rated top in state and in national top 50

A group of students at one of America's top high schools filmed themselves performing a sick dance routine with dead cats in their classroom before posting the video on Facebook, the Daily Mail Online can reveal.

The disturbing footage shows eight young students from a flagship charter school - which is rated among the best schools in the USA - making the cat corpses 'dance' to music in a school laboratory while being 'conducted' bby another student.

The students, from the Harding Charter Preparatory High School in Oklahoma, ranked number one in Oklahoma and 23 in the USA, can be seen laughing as they stand in a row with the cats – meant to be dissected in their anatomy class - then wave them side to side to the 'Meow Mix' cat food commercial song.

In the video – obtained by the Daily Mail Online - one student stands before the other eight and can be seen 'directing' the macabre routine with another dead cat.

Cruel: Eight students in white lab coats are seen holding the cat corpses and appearing to make them dance to the theme tune to the long-running Meow Mix advertising campaign. Another student 'conducts them'

Condemned: Animal rights group PETA said they had complained repeatedly to the school about the video but had had no response. The school did not answer requests for comment from Daily Mail Online

As the well-known 'Meow Mix' song starts to play, the students smile at each other as they make the dead cats touch each other and bounce in synchronized movements.

At the end of the video, the student director holds up a sign that reads, 'Piccolo and the Pussycats'.

The video was uploaded to Facebook by one of the students, who also tagged three other students and 'Leslie Piccolo' - believed to be a teacher - in the post.

According to the school's website, Leslie Piccolo is the name of a science teacher at the school, but it is unclear whether she was present at the time the video was recorded, believed to be last school year.

She is described as teaching 'Human Anatomy/Physiology, Zoology/Botany, Health, Cardio-Conditioning' on the website and also purports to be an animal-lover, describing her toy Yorkshire terrier Olive Thyme as the 'Best Pet on Earth' and '4 lbs. of love and devotion'.

Piccolo did not return calls asking her for comment.

Animal rights group PETA is now calling on a ban on animal dissection in schools in the wake of the film.

The charity told Daily Mail Online it had sent 'numerous' letters to the Oklahoma City school reporting the incident but received no reply.

The school, which is publicly-funded but has greater independence from official scrutiny than regular high schools, has not yet responded to requests for comment from Daily Mail Online.

PETA said that the video violates leading science education organizations' guidelines, which state that classrooms should treat animals respectfully and ethically.

The group also told the school that classroom animal dissection 'can cause lifelong psychological distress and foster callousness toward animals and that this situation is a case in point'.

Justin Goodman, PETA's director of laboratory investigations, said: 'Cats used for dissection are often lost or stolen animal companions - but in classrooms like this one, students are taught that they're props and inanimate laboratory tools to be mocked, used, and discarded.

'PETA is calling on Harding Charter Preparatory High School to teach its students to respect life and science - and it can start by replacing cruel and archaic animal dissection with humane and more effective non-animal teaching methods.'

Every year in the US, an estimated 10 million animals are killed for dissection, according to PETA.

Many come from biological supply houses - which breed animals especially for dissection - from animal shelters or from the wild.

Tune: The horror video recorded at Oklahoma City's Harding Charter Preparatory High School used the theme tune from 'Meow Mix', the long-running adverts featuring cats appearing to sing along to lyrics

Prestigious: Harding Charter Preparatory High School has been rated Oklahoma's top high school and one of the top 50 in the United States

The group is urging schools to use alternative methods to teach students about anatomy such as computer programs, which can be more effective than real-life dissection as they allow students to repeat the dissection multiple times.

'Non-animal methods, such as interactive computer programs, have been shown to teach biology as well as - and in many cases, better than - dissection,' Goodman added.

'They also save teachers time and money and increase students' confidence and satisfaction.

'The National Science Teachers Association also endorses the use of modern non-animal methods as replacements for dissection.'

It's not the first time a school has come under fire for its treatment of animals meant for dissection.

In 2011, two seniors were suspended from John Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas, for leaving a dead cat on another student's car as a prank.

In the same year, a Florida teacher was reassigned schools and ordered to be retrained after 'bullying and taunting' a seventh-grade student at North Naples Middle School who refused to dissect a frog in class.

It is not known whether the students on this video were punished.

Harding Charter Preparatory High School was unavailable for comment when approached by Daily Mail Online.

The over-subscribed school, which currently awards places by lottery to meet demand, has won an array of plaudits and accolades.

The school is ranked the number one public school in the state and number 23 in the entire USA by thebestschools.org and number one in the state and 89th in the country by the US News and World Report, an organization that produces education rankings.