YouTuber Brooke Houts is facing a backlash after footage surfaced of her aggressively handling her dog.
The social media star, who has almost 340,000 subscribers on YouTube, appears to have since deleted the edited version of the video, which shows her pranking her dog by placing cling wrap over a doorway and seeing how he reacts after running into it.
Please be aware that some might find the following unedited video upsetting:
When Brooke accidentally uploaded the unedited version, someone seems to have recorded it before she deleted it. In the footage, Brooke is seen appearing to hit, push and yell "lay down" at her Doberman, named Sphinx. At one point in the video, she yells "stop" at the dog before appearing to spitting on it.
Twitter user @shoe0nhead shared the unedited footage with the caption:
"People making excuses for this like “haha as if you’ve never lost your temper!” are concerning. You dont punch, grab, slap, slam to the ground and SPIT on your pet out of frustration. What would spitting on a dog do???"
They also tweeted:
"She was filming a high energy fun video where she PLAYS WITH THE DOG therefore the dog naturally thought it was playtime. Yet punches and spits on it in the unedited leak for acting the same way it was acting in the edited version."
And most people on Twitter seemed to agree. Another famous YouTuber named Ethan Klein commented: "Im in LA and will literally buy your dog from you name any price, he really does need a new home."
Even the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals got involved:
After all the backlash, Brooke Houts posted an apology to Twitter. In it, she says that she is not an animal abuser and that she didn't spit on her dog. She also says she's working to get her dog training:
"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 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 I’m clearly actually frustrated."
"That being said, this does not justify me yelling at my dog in the way that I did, and I’m fully aware of that. Should I have gotten as angry as I did in the video? No. Should I have raised my voice and yelled at him? No."
Earlier this month, a Twitch gamer came under fire for throwing her cat:"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 behaviour is unacceptable. But I want to make it known, regardless of what my dog does, I should not have acted that way towards him."
"In my heart and from the words of the people that spend the most time with me, I know that I am a great dog mom (but not perfect), that I spoil him in the best ways, that he gets all the treats he could ever want, and that the Amazon Prime mailman is probably tired of delivering packages of dog toys to my house."
"Again, this does not make my actions in the footage okay, but I’m just explaining what my day-to-day life is really like, whether you believe me or not."
After several complaints, the Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the situation. A LAPD representative told The Verge: “Our Animal Cruelty Task Force has received numerous complaints about the video you’re speaking of and we are currently looking into the matter.”
