Brooke Houts, a YouTuber, accidentally uploaded a RAW video of her abusing her dog on her official YouTube account. She is now facing a petition that calls her to be banned from YouTube, a video-sharing website.
The video shows Brooke spitting, hitting, and slapping her Doberman dog in one of her vlogs.
The video went viral shortly after she uploaded the video, and now, over 20,000 people have signed a petition at change.org.
The petition is calling for Brooke to be banned from the video-sharing website.
The petition started earlier this month, and now, petitioners want to send it to Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube.
The petition reads, “The video was quickly taken down and replaced with the edited version, but many had already seen it by the time she took it down, and the footage can still be found online. Houts has since uploaded her attempt at an apology, in which she claims ‘On the day in particular that the video was filmed, and actually this past week, things in my outside life have been less than exceptional’.”
The petition added, “Does having a bad day excuse hitting your dog? How about pinning your dog to the ground and spitting on him? Does anything excuse this? This wasn’t a mistake. No one hits and spits on a living creature by mistake. If this is what Houts is comfortable doing on camera, what could she be doing to her dog off camera?”
Also Read: YouTuber Brooke Houts Accidentally Uploads Video Of Her Hitting And Spitting On Her Doberman Dog
The petition continued, “Multiple videos on Houts’ YouTube channel focus on Sphinx, and she even has created an Instagram account for the dog. This would be fine if she properly cared for him, but when you witness her mistreatment of her dog, it seems that Sphinx was only ever an accessory for Houts to show off and a tool to use to gain YouTube fame. Of course, the best outcome for this would be that Sphinx would be rehomed and Houts would be charged with animal abuse. Unfortunately, this is a lot to ask for, so instead I ask for the bare minimum to be done: ban Brooke Houts from YouTube. Delete her channel, her videos, any reupload of her abuse, and never allow her to have a channel or any sort of influence ever again.”
The petition also calls out YouTube.
It says, “YouTube – To allow Brooke Houts to continue on your platform after blatantly violating YouTube guidelines and proving herself to be a violent, dangerous individual towards animals is the same as condoning her behaviour. A person like her should never be allowed to have influence or an audience, and keeping up her channel and videos reflects very poorly back onto YouTube itself.”
The petition added, “By allowing Houts’s videos and channel to remain online, YouTube is essentially normalising the mistreatment of animals, particularly for the young and impressionable viewers that are a majority on YouTube’s website. To see Houts escape from this drama with her channel intact with no punishment from the platform in which she used to broadcast her abuse also creates a risk for copycat behaviour by those desperate for YouTube fame and attention.”
After she accidentally uploaded the video on YouTube, Brooke released a long statement about the incident on Twitter.
She said, “I am not going to play the ‘victim card’ or anything of that sort, but I do want to point out that I am rarely as upset as what was shown in the footage,”
“The bubbly, happy-go-lucky Brooke that you often see in my videos is typically an accurate representation of me, but it’s obvious that I’m playing up my mood in this video when I’m clearly actually frustrated,” emphasizing that she is not trying to “justify” her behavior.”
“Should I have gotten as angry as I did in the video?” she continued. “No. Should I have raised my voice and yelled at him? No. However, when my 75 lb. Doberman is jumping in my face with his mouth open, I do, as a dog parent, have to show him that this behavior is unacceptable.”
“But I want to make it known, REGARDLESS of what my dog does, I should not have acted that way towards him,” she added. “I want to clarify that I am NOT a dog abuser or animal abuser in any way, shape or form.”
The Los Angeles Police Department also released a statement about the incident.
The LAPD said, “Our Animal Cruelty Task Force has received numerous complaints about the video and we are currently looking into the matter.”
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