Maroon 5's Video for 'Animals' Sparks Outrage Over Depiction of Stalking

— -- The song “Animals” by Maroon 5 is getting lots of airplay, but it’s the song’s dark music video that has really got people talking, saying it’s disturbing for its portrayal of stalking.

In the video posted to VEVO on Sept. 29, Adam Levine, the band’s frontman and a judge on NBC’s “The Voice,” plays a butcher who stalks a beautiful young woman (played by Levine’s new wife, model Behati Prinsloo).

Levine’s butcher follows the woman, hiding when she turns around. He takes numerous photos of her, watches her from outside her apartment and stands right behind her at a club -- all without her noticing his actions.

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Behind it all is the catchy music and Levine’s falsetto belting out lyrics including: “Baby, I'm preying on you tonight/Hunt you down eat you alive/Just like animals/Animals/Like animals

“Maybe you think that you can hide/I can smell your scent from miles/Just like animals/Animals/Like animals/Baby, I'm--”

The overtones, coupled with the presence of lots of animal carcasses and copious amounts of blood on the couple’s near-naked bodies -- have proven to be unsettling to many of the video’s viewers, who sounded off on YouTube.

“What is sexy at all with this video?! Stalking a beautiful young woman suddenly became sexy.... yeah that sounds right. Disgusting!” wrote one poster.

The sentiment was echoed by numerous others, including one who said: “That was one of the most disgusting, disturbing music videos I have ever seen. Sadly, I was a big Maroon 5 fan and am extremely disappointed they have resorted to a purely shock-value, low standard of performance. It's not 'artistic', it's not 'just entertainment', it's equating romance and passion with predatory stalking. As a woman, as a human being, and as a Maroon 5 fan... I felt incredibly uncomfortable and sickened watching this.”

But others viewers rushed to defend the video.

“If the girl is hugging and kissing the guy back, doesn't look like rape in my book,” wrote one poster. Added another: “People need to calm down. Its not a bad song or video... Its Maroon 5's video to with it what they wish. Plus, its his wife. His wife, people!!”

Yet others encouraged people to things into perspective.

“If its a movie script or a film its okay, but take a horror concept and turn it into a theatrical music video and everyone loses their minds,” wrote a viewer. “People get wound the wrong way when a pop star expresses creativity (and somehow associate it with rape? wtf?), but if its a horror movie? You all pay $20 to go see it. ...”

RAINN -- the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network -- also slammed the video. In a statement, the group’s vice president of communications, Katherine Hull Fliflet, called the video “a dangerous depiction of a stalker’s fantasy."

The statement added that “no one should ever confuse the criminal act of stalking with romance. The trivialization of these serious crimes, like stalking, should have no place in the entertainment industry.”

Representatives for both Maroon 5 and the band's record label, Interscope Records, declined to comment to ABC News.

“Animals” is from the band’s fifth studio album, “V,” which was released in August. As of Thursday night, the video had been viewed more than 7.3 million times.