Whimpering dog dragged to euthanasia room at city pound in heartbreaking viral video

This is a classic story of an animal pound killing a dog who did not have behavioral issues but it was claimed that he did. There is a petition on change.org which explains it all (relevant extracts below) and The New York Times covered this. 

Nathan Winograd writes about these events all the time. There are still 'shelters' in the US where they have poor policies and management on dealing with dogs and which ones to save and rehome and which ones to euthanise (kill). 

The Pitbull breeds are branded bad almost automatically based on their appearance when the decent thing to do would be to assess each dog based on their behavior and even if it is not optimal whether it can be remedied by basic socialisation and training.

Screenshots from the video below plus NY Times' headline. Thanks New York Times.

This dog was Maverick. It was reported that he bit his owner but we don't the veracity of that or the backstory. We do know that police Officer Teng stated he had no trouble with MAVERICK, and seemed surprised and taken aback to hear that he had been killed by NYC ACC (New York City Animal Care Centers). Workers at the shelter said Maverick showed “serious aggression,” — leading to its decision to euthanize him.

This is taken from the Change.org website petition to:

Pass New York CAPA and Stop the Killing of Healthy and Treatable Shelter Animals!

“ACCORDING TO THE [NYPD] OFFICER WHO DEALT WITH MAVERICK…

Officer Teng stated he had no trouble with MAVERICK, and seemed surprised and taken aback to hear that he had been killed by NYC ACC. Officer Teng said the son in MAVERICK’s family brought the dog who was wagging his tail out to the police car and MAVERICK hopped right into the back, and rode calmly with Officer Teng without incident to the Precinct, where he remained calm and friendly until ACC later picked-up MAVERICK. Officer Teng stated that only the father of the family had ever had a problem with MAVERICK, who had bitten the father once before. Officer Teng clearly described a dog who was not unmanageable or vicious in any way, and was not, and did not need to be restrained at any time the Officer was with what he also described as a friendly and calm dog.”

WARNING - SOME MIGHT FIND THE VIDEO DISTRESSING.

The video is not great quality because it was poor in the first place and I videoed it from my computer screen. Sorry if that has infringed someone's copyright but needs must in the interests of justice and decency. It is good enough to get the message. It is distressing.

Cindi Lyn who started the petition writes on Change.org:

A horrifying video was recorded on Thursday, May 9th, 2019, at the New York City pound in Manhattan. The video shows a 'euth tech' attempting to block the view of a rescue volunteer who bravely kept recording as uncaring ACC employees dragged a frightened dog named Maverick to the kill room. Maverick seemed to sense his fate and resisted his killers by lying down, showing no sign of aggression.

Veterinarian exasperated with viral cat videos with one showing morbidly obese cat

Exasperated Ben the Vet. Screenshot.

Viral cat videos can be abusive of the cat. This is what exasperates Ben the Vet on TikTok. Of course, he is concerned with health but also with reality like me. There is a lot of shortsightedness across a swath of cat owners about concern for their cat's welfare as they dive into video making in an effort to make a mark within this highly competitive area of internet social media.

The video says it all. And I am very sympathetic to his views. I've been saying these things myself for 15 years. The problem is that people want to make interesting videos. I understand that and am also sympathetic to their desires. Cats are interesting to a lot of people. Unfortunately, it can lead to cat abuse in various forms sometimes very mild and sometimes more severe. 

RELATED: 34% of cats featured in ‘funny cat videos’ are upset and stressed.

It has been shown that sometimes cats become stressed during these viral videos. So, the videos are, without being tiresome, not uncommonly an abuse and exploitation of the domestic cat to entertain people which is what PETA hates and me as well. 

I like Ben because he voices my thoughts perhaps better than I can. Veterinarians anyway have a status which they can use to help educate society. People tend to listen to them. And he points out that this cat is morbidly obese to the point where it will seriously jeopardise the cat's health. The owner appears to have ignored this point and tried to make a funny viral video on the back of it. 

As a vet he doesn't like it. He is exasperated. As a non-vet I don't like it either. The first duty of a cat caregiver is to keep them safe and within that umbrella it means keeping them healthy. 

After that it is our duty to entertain them and keep them happy and not for them to entertain us although inevitably, they do if they are well cared for.

Macho baseball players can't catch a cat on their field of play

A cat caught in a baseball stadium is finally caught. Screenshot.

YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK CITY - COMMENT: The video provokes two opposite emotions: concern and hilarity. I'm in the former camp because when I see this video of a stray cat trapped inside a baseball ground, trying to get out, I feel for the cat. The players and spectators are amused. Some of them laugh. I understand completely because that is the conventional response.

Tabby cat evades capture at baseball ground. Screenshot.

But I see a frightened cat trying to get away from strange people. It is, in fact, quite a dangerous moment for this cat. He or she could have been harmed. I don't know the outcome. Judging by the celebrations of the players at the end of the video we have to presume that the cat was caught. We don't know the outcome from thereon however. What happened to the cat? Was he taken to the outside where he might be able to return to his home if he has one? This should not happen but it is no big deal as long as the cat was unharmed.

The video will disappear in due course as they nearly always do. If that has happened, I am sorry but I can't control it as the server holding the video is not within my control.

Yankee Stadium security chases a cat around the field for nearly four minutes and never gets its hands on what might be the most elusive animal that ever lived pic.twitter.com/w2HR4H3HaW

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 3, 2021

The comments to the video on Facebook are in those two camps: amusement and concern. On the amusement side there are people questioning why so many people could not catch a cat. On the concerned side there are cat lovers saying that the cat is terrified and sarcastically saying "I'm glad everyone found terrifying a small helpless creature so amusing."

Cats trapped on baseball grounds seem to be a feature of the game of baseball. I have seen quite a few of them. Perhaps something should be done to ensure that cats are not able to get into these grounds. It may be the case that cats are attracted to these places because there is food. Somebody might be feeding them. Somebody who is in the catering business.

Would you flood out your home for TikTok social media success? And blame your cats!

This Singaporean man alleges through his TikTok video that his Russian Blue cats turned on the kitchen tap, I guess during the night, and flooded out is home. And he says that it is the second time it has happened! Are you as incredulous as me about the veracity of this statement? Some pretty extraordinary things would have to take place for it to happen.

Russian Blue cats flood home? True or false? Screenshot.

The tap to his kitchen sink is turned anticlockwise from vertical through 90°. A cat would have to do that deliberately for some mysterious reason. Secondly, nearly all kitchen sinks have an overflow to take away excess water to stop flooding. That would have to be plugged in this instance. Thirdly, there would have to be a plug in the outlet otherwise the water would simply flow into the outlet and away to the drain. So, these three things need to be in place for what we see in the video to happen and a cat wood have had to start the whole process.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

@zul_taylor12

won't forget this 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ ##russianbluecat

♬ original sound - Zultaylor

Personally, I don't believe it and therefore I have declared it to be a fake video because this guy has a craving for TikTok success. There is a massive craving among a lot of young people for social media success through videos. They will go to the ends of the world to achieve it including flooding their apartment. 

Maybe he thinks the water is not going to cause too much damage because he has a hard floor. I think he is incorrect because kitchen units are made of chipboard with laminated surfaces. Water seeps up into the chipboard and it expands causing the lamination to come off. You see bubbling in the lamination and the effect is spoiled.

And when you see the video, you will notice that this Singaporean guy is filming the flood while the kitchen sink tap is still running. In other words, the flooding is taking place while he's filming. He did not race towards the kitchen sink to turn it off in a mass panic. He just simply kept on filming and providing his commentary. That doesn't make sense to me. It hints or quite strongly implies to me that the whole video was constructed by him and he's blamed the cats to give it a feline flavour! What do you think? Please comment about this.