West Ham captain Mark Noble called a team meeting after a horrific video of Kurt Zouma abusing his pet cats was made public.
Zouma, 27, was widely condemned for his actions and fined two weeks' wages by the Premier League outfit - around £250,000 - but wasn't suspended.
The defender is currently being investigated the RSPCA, who rescued the vulnerable animals two days after the video was watched by millions of football fans.
Speaking ahead of West Ham's 1-1 home draw against Newcastle on Saturday, manager David Moyes revealed Noble got the players together to discuss Zouma's actions.
Noble, 34, joined the Hammers from Arsenal's academy in 2000 and has since made more than 500 senior appearances for the club. He was appointed captain in 2015.
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"Mark Noble does a brilliant job," revealed Moyes on Friday afternoon. "He brought the players together. They all spoke about the situation.
"They had it out amongst themselves. He did the sort of thing an experienced captain would do, which is great for the manager.
“There's a lot of joined-up things at the football club. We might not always do the right things or get it right.
"But no matter what age we are, where we are, I have to keep learning. I had a new learning experience last week."
Moyes went on to say: "Mark did it off his own back, took responsibility and showed great leadership.
"All football clubs need leadership, whether from the top, the manager, the captain.
"He took a lot of leadership and showed: 'I'm going to get this out in the open and out of the way. We're going to discuss it. See who's happy and who's not happy. Let's flush it out.'
"Ultimately we've got a lot of games and the players need to work together. Mark showed what he is and what he has been – a really good captain.
"Sometimes you need a bit of adversity to drive you on. Now we need to make sure we use all the things to our advantage the best we can.
"It was our own doing so we're the ones who have to fix it ourselves, nobody else."
West Ham remain fifth in the Premier League following their draw with Newcastle, one point behind Manchester United in fourth having played a game more.
The Hammers took the lead at the London Stadium in the first half through Craig Dawson before Joe Willock equalised just before the interval.
Moyes' side have won just one of their last five Premier League games.
"A good point because the way we played I wasn't sure we were going to get any," said Moyes after the game.
"The point is the positive we take from it, we never reached the level we can reach.
"I felt we were in good shape with the training during the week. No excuses, we just didn't play well today
"Let's be fair, Newcastle had one or two opportunities in the fist half, so did we, we just didn't deal well with those balls in the box today and that was one that led to the goal."
