Author Topic: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...  (Read 4482 times)

amc1980

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Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« on: August 19, 2007, 06:17:52 AM »
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2284380.ece

Quote
THE video-sharing website YouTube has become a forum for animal cruelty, with viewers flocking to watch clips such as one of a tethered goat being fed to a python by laughing onlookers.

Animal welfare groups have attacked YouTube for hosting the footage, which also includes live mice and chicks being fed to piranha fish, and pets being thrown from tall buildings.

In many of the videos, spectators are heard laughing as the animals are made to suffer before, often, being fed to a larger and more valuable pet. A search on the site for “python” and “chick” turns up more than 30 videos of snakes being fed live chicks.

A large proportion of the clips on the site, which was bought last year by Google for almost £900m, are of cats and dogs engaged in harmless activities, and many have been viewed several million times.

However, the RSPCA described the videos showing animals suffering as “sickening” and said the cruelty found on YouTube went far beyond simply feeding one animal to another.

“We’ve seen every kind of animal abuse on YouTube, from clips of dogs fighting to one of a kitten being thrown off a fifth floor balcony for fun. It’s definitely not a joke; really it’s a sad reflection on our society,” a spokesman said.

The anonymity that YouTube users enjoy impedes efforts to prosecute, according to the RSPCA spokesman, who said: “To prosecute successfully we need to know not just who is responsible but also where and when the incident took place, and that’s almost impossible.”

In one clip a goat is seen sniffing and scratching at the floor of its cage as a trapdoor opens and the head of a python emerges. The snake then begins to coil itself slowly around the goat.

As the python strengthens its grip and the goat fights for its life, a man’s voice is heard shouting: “Come here, bitch!” A girl laughs while another man, clearly excited by the demise of the goat, says: “It can’t breathe.” According to the video time counter, it’s all over in 2min 42sec.

The scene has been viewed more than 5,000 times and has been awarded three out of five stars by viewers, with more than 30 people listing it as a “favourite” clip.

In another sequence, set to a gentle musical soundtrack, a mouse is released from a small box. It runs around the carpet for a few moments until a hand lifts it up by the tail and drops it into a tank containing piranha fish. Within seconds the water has turned red with blood as the piranhas rip the mouse to shreds.

Comments posted by other YouTube users include: “Haha-hahahaha!!!! BRILLIANT,” and “Hard core”.

Many of the videos showing cruelty emanate from America, where the vast majority of YouTube subscribers live. However, some appear to be made in Britain. In one, put on the site by a London resident, a python is shown eating a dead mouse.

The maker, who uses the name youronlynightmare, states on his space on the site: “I do realise people can find them offensive, if they feel sorry for the mouse or rat . . . but it’s nature.”

In other footage a British family on safari films two lions attacking and killing a giraffe. When the lions begin to eat the giraffe, a child is heard crying in distress. As the parents film the attack and discuss it, they complain at one point that the dead giraffe is blocking the road.

Psychologists say that people who are cruel to animals tend to be cruel to other human beings. Suzanne Conboy-Hill, a psychologist, said: “Research in the United States shows that often people who have been imprisoned for violent or sadistic crime have also confessed to carrying out cruel acts against animals.”

Peter Hepburn, chief executive of Cats Protection, a welfare charity, said: “We do receive calls from the cat-loving public who are extremely distressed by the alleged cruelty they have seen on the internet, including on YouTube. Some of these videos can be horrifying. Why people feel the need to be both cruel to these wonderful animals and then seek public attention of their actions is completely beyond me.”

A spokesman for YouTube said it relied on users to alert it to inappropriate clips, which were then removed.


powerpack

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2007, 07:05:37 AM »
We are going back to the old days where bear bating, cat burning, dog fighting, cock fighting are seen as morbid pleasure.
YOU TUBE does open it up to many people but they have a lot of good as well as bad.
And maybe these videos show people what is actually happening.
Unfortunately alot of humans have a sadistic cruel side to them, it is called "Human nature" and there is not much you can do about it, it is in our species  :-\

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2007, 08:12:21 AM »
How many more animals were abused because now people can film it and post it? Are they now trying to outdo each other? 

   :-\

Some of them, like the feeding animals ones, you could argue that similar things are shown on the nature channels on tv, but the cruelty ones cannot be defended at all. 

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2007, 09:17:48 AM »
How many more animals were abused because now people can film it and post it? Are they now trying to outdo each other? 

   :-\

Some of them, like the feeding animals ones, you could argue that similar things are shown on the nature channels on tv, but the cruelty ones cannot be defended at all. 


i don't think they can even go that far flower... these animals are not in their natural setting and for the most part we are not talking about wild animals...

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2007, 09:22:50 AM »
they forgot to mention the video in which a tiger is beating up on lions at a great cat retirement center (all the lions looked pretty old and worn out) in S Korea or China.  there was also a video of a cow being dumped into a mess of great cats . . . Kinda sad the way asian human beings interfere in these animal's lives.

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2007, 10:06:58 AM »
this is not youtube's fault though... this is really a scary description of state of humanity

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2007, 10:17:47 AM »
this is not youtube's fault though... this is really a scary description of state of humanity
Yup!

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2007, 12:33:05 PM »

i don't think they can even go that far flower... these animals are not in their natural setting and for the most part we are not talking about wild animals...



true, but a python has to eat, same as the piranha.  And like I said how many nature shows show an animal taking down another one and then eating it? 

Some animals that are kept as pets won't eat pre-killed animals and can't be considered 'domesticated' like dogs and cats. 

Geo

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2007, 01:20:36 PM »
We are going back to the old days where bear bating, cat burning, dog fighting, cock fighting are seen as morbid pleasure.


not to mention liquored up kids cold cocking people at bus stops,the internet in general definetly exposes the worst side of  some people

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2007, 03:41:14 PM »


true, but a python has to eat, same as the piranha.  And like I said how many nature shows show an animal taking down another one and then eating it? 

Some animals that are kept as pets won't eat pre-killed animals and can't be considered 'domesticated' like dogs and cats. 


sorat true... you can train your snake to either eat live or dead prey but not both... feeding them live prey is actually dangerous for them and complicated...

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #10 on: August 19, 2007, 04:00:34 PM »
sorat true... you can train your snake to either eat live or dead prey but not both... feeding them live prey is actually dangerous for them and complicated...

yeah, I was kind of surprised to hear about the goat

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #11 on: August 19, 2007, 04:02:40 PM »
yeah, I was kind of surprised to hear about the goat

now i want some mutton

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #12 on: August 19, 2007, 04:05:04 PM »
now i want some mutton

 is'nt that sheep?   
   :P

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #13 on: August 19, 2007, 04:07:19 PM »

 is'nt that sheep?   
   :P

it's meat... and yes it's sheep

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #14 on: August 20, 2007, 11:14:59 PM »
sorat true... you can train your snake to either eat live or dead prey but not both... feeding them live prey is actually dangerous for them and complicated...

I've only worked with a couple of snakes that won't eventually take prekilled prey.  The thing is it takes time--and most people are lazy. 

I refuse to feed live rabbits to my burmese---she's more than capable of killing and eating a 12 lb or bigger rabbit.  The thing is its never a clean kill.  I buy the rabbits prekilled and frozen from the lab.  She's never protested one time. 

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Re: Animal welfare groups criticise Youtube...
« Reply #15 on: August 21, 2007, 03:51:03 AM »
I've only worked with a couple of snakes that won't eventually take prekilled prey.  The thing is it takes time--and most people are lazy. 

you may be right

I refuse to feed live rabbits to my burmese---she's more than capable of killing and eating a 12 lb or bigger rabbit.  The thing is its never a clean kill.  I buy the rabbits prekilled and frozen from the lab.  She's never protested one time. 

yeah, one of my friends had a snake who's intestines got blocked by "hair & teeth"...