I've not yet seen it said that there is a morality issue here. It is known that a healthy percentage of cats in funny cat videos are stressed (34%) because of the production of the video. In other words, people are stressing their cats in order to make a funny video.
The same applies to these viral cucumber cat videos. People are relying on their cat to become very frightened in order to make an interesting video. Is that morally, correct? I do not want to sound high-handed and preaching but clearly it is immoral. Cat owners have a responsibility to create an environment in which their cat companion is content. Everything that cat guardians do should be designed to meet that objective. Putting a cucumber behind a cat to frighten them achieves the exact opposite.
There are many examples of Internet videos which rely on the same principle, namely to frighten or abuse the cat in some way in order to create an interesting video. It simply has to stop. Of course, it won't and I am pissing in the wind. I fully realise that. The competition to create interesting cat videos is immense because there is quite a lot of money to be made through Google advertising on YouTube videos. And some of the most successful videos feature domestic cats as we all know.
We should also know that the reason why domestic cats jump out of their skin when they see a cucumber is not because they are frightened of cucumbers per se but because the owner put the cucumber behind them and therefore when they turn around, they see a strange object which wasn't there previously.
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| Screenshot from one video. |
The same applies to these viral cucumber cat videos. People are relying on their cat to become very frightened in order to make an interesting video. Is that morally, correct? I do not want to sound high-handed and preaching but clearly it is immoral. Cat owners have a responsibility to create an environment in which their cat companion is content. Everything that cat guardians do should be designed to meet that objective. Putting a cucumber behind a cat to frighten them achieves the exact opposite.
There are many examples of Internet videos which rely on the same principle, namely to frighten or abuse the cat in some way in order to create an interesting video. It simply has to stop. Of course, it won't and I am pissing in the wind. I fully realise that. The competition to create interesting cat videos is immense because there is quite a lot of money to be made through Google advertising on YouTube videos. And some of the most successful videos feature domestic cats as we all know.
We should also know that the reason why domestic cats jump out of their skin when they see a cucumber is not because they are frightened of cucumbers per se but because the owner put the cucumber behind them and therefore when they turn around, they see a strange object which wasn't there previously.
Instinctively they defend themselves by jumping out of the way because they aren't sure whether this strange object is hostile and perhaps a predator. Cucumbers look somewhat like snakes which are dangerous to cats unless you are a sand cat. Sand cats attack and eat snakes even venomous ones!
Please, don't jump on the bandwagon and try and frighten your cat to make a funny cat video. It is not a good idea. Don't rely on your cat's anxiety and fear in order to benefit financially. It is inherently immoral and bad cat caretaking.
Please, don't jump on the bandwagon and try and frighten your cat to make a funny cat video. It is not a good idea. Don't rely on your cat's anxiety and fear in order to benefit financially. It is inherently immoral and bad cat caretaking.
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