Content/trigger warning: animal abuse
20-year-old YouTube vlogger Brooke Houts, famous for her storytimes and most recently, Doberman pet videos, is in hot water for one of her most recent uploads titled “plastic wrap prank on my doberman!”
Earlier this week, Houts posted the video on the site, showcasing a prank where she wraps an entrance in plastic wrap to see what would happen if her dog ran through it. If that isn’t questionable enough, Houts accidentally left in some disturbing footage. Another YouTuber, Sh0eonhead, created a Twitter thread, posting the footage along with other information about Houts’ channel.
haha hilarious prank @brookehouts !!! xD pic.twitter.com/kjvmOnln7e
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) August 7, 2019
In the video, Houts is seen smacking her dog when he jumps up on her, roughly pushing him down when he runs into the frame during the outro. She also yells, “Stop!” in his ear, and then presumably spits on him.
This haunting footage follows after a similar scandal with Twitch streamer Alinity, who threw her cat behind her during a live stream. After receiving backlash from fans and detractors, Houts swiftly deleted the uncut video and reuploaded an edited version on August 4, 2019. The pinned comment is a text version of a Notes apology about the situation on her Twitter, which is also her pinned tweet.
https://twitter.com/brookehouts/status/1158906113741299712?s=20
Houts defends her heinous behavior by exclaiming, “I do, as a dog parent, have to show [my dog] that this behavior is unacceptable.” The vlogger continues declaring that she is not an animal abuser, further defending her actions by saying, “but if he was audibly and physically in pain, it would be a different story.”
Whether or not her Doberman showed any form of pain or discomfort, it does not excuse her from the fact that she abused her dog. It is obvious Houts is profiting off of her Doberman. Uploads mentioning her dog’s breed or displaying presence in the thumbnail have garnered hundreds of thousands of views while most of her vlogs without her dog have barely reached ten thousand.
Image via YouTube
What people like Houts and Alinity need to realize is that pets have feelings and aren’t just props for them to use and gain clout from. This is common sense, and people across the internet should not have to flood their social media notifications telling them so. Hopefully, YouTube will put a strike on Houts’ channel, or even better—take it down—since this is not only immoral but against the YouTube guidelines.
Featured image via Brooke Houts YouTube channel
