I became a vegan mainly because of the Covid lockdown and how I thought about animals, walking past the fields of sheep and wondering why they have such differential treatment compared to say a dog. The realisation of “speciesism”, a hidden discrimination where we condemn certain species of animals to slaughterhouses and others to a loving home based on the body they’re born into, even though inherently we’re all the same really awoke me, especially considering I’ve never had any pets. In 2021 I watched the movie “Dominion” and slowly but surely became vegan in January 2022. 

During the months leading up to becoming vegan I began enquiring about keeping a farm animal as a pet. Instead of the traditional cat or dog I wanted say a hen or chick. Something manageable that I could fall in love with. But to my horror I soon realised the connection between the movie “Dominion” I watched and real life. At my local pet store they were selling frozen baby chicks as these were leftovers from the egg industry. I rang up and couldn’t believe these were to be used as pet food to feed to dogs ect. These innocent little babies not long separated from their mothers, gassed alive just to have their delicate little bodies eaten by someone’s pet. Or if it were broiler chickens in a factory farm, to be slaughtered after 40 days of hell for a bucket of KFC.

And of course the day I cried in a pet store. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. In a section towards the back in dozens of plastic containers on top of each other, there were gentle locusts alive and moving slowly around the box. I soon realised they were captured from their natural habitat in the tropics just to be seemingly eaten alive by pet reptiles and other lizards. At that point my heart absolutely broke for them, I couldn’t believe this was even legal. It would be bad enough if they were already dead but alive and roaming around just destroyed me. I was in tears and ended up taking a box with only 2 left alive with the rest already dead and let them out in the grass to not ever have to experience being eating alive, one of the worst ways to die, by some pathetic and sadistic reptile owner. Here is the video I made about that day: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EZpJzURQ_oU

I unfortunately stumbled upon this niche and a few months after going vegan I typed into YouTube “pet frog”. Maybe someone stroking their beloved pet and giving it love and affection, as I had previously found this with hen videos, including animals being rescued and given cuddles afterwards and many others being shown love by their owners. But sadly no, this gentle amphibian that doesn’t even have any teeth has seemingly become the centre of a very sadistic fetish online, mainly the live feeding videos on YouTube. Whether it’s madscienceEN who traps animals and insects in glass boxes or the countless others who are getting millions of views online, or the poor, innocent and defenceless prey animals being devoured alive for spectacle and entertainment by reptiles/amphibians ect. Even the frogs, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, piranhas ect themselves who are probably starved and unnaturally, even forcibly setup in these conditions just for this glorified act of sadism to be filmed and shared. I feel sorry for all those poor, defenceless animals involved. Both predators and prey. This is animal cruelty at its absolute finest and has absolutely nothing to do with nature. These videos may as well be on a porn site considering how many sick, depraved individuals are seemingly getting off to watching someone else’s life destroyed against their will. Taken away from their mothers and fathers just to be eaten alive for a sick fetish. These are the exact type of people who need to be behind bars, because I’m telling you it isn’t a far step to hurt a human if you’re engaging in the suffering and torture of innocent animals like this and actually taking pleasure from it. Rejoicing in the torture of animals is strongly connected to family violence and child abuse. It should be illegal to own animals if the sole purpose is to use them as bait for this modern day bloodsport. These people are a danger to society and we are grooming future murderers by allowing this to be advertised on the 2nd most viewed website in the world. The majority of the videos aren’t even age restricted so any child could stumble upon them and be scarred by visual abuse or even PTSD at such a young age which is despicable. As moral agents we should know better.

Also, by feeding prey animals or insects to another species higher up the food chain, it’s created an unfair and unnatural scenario. Prey animals are biologically designed to detect their predators and avoid being eaten, which often works. But placing these animals in a box or small area with no escape really does turn this live feeding niche into a disgusting bloodsport that is solely done in very similar and disturbing fashion to snuff films. There’s isn’t much difference apart from a different victim. But we are all animals at the end of the day. 

What’s currently happening in factory farms and abattoirs is an absolute abomination. It’s a complete and utter disgrace to see the numbers of animals including cows, pigs, sheep, chickens ect killed per year for human consumption. Whether it’s boiling lobsters alive, skinning rabbits alive, or ripping the wings off queen bees, it’s all the same to me. Even the recent banning of animal “crush” videos depicting innocent animals being crushed and tortured to death as part of a sick fetish I find absolutely repulsive. All this just backs up my view that the human dominion over the animal kingdom must end, because our morals have become completely nonexistent. Considering how technologically advanced we are it’s unbelievable how far we are behind morally. Something needs to change. We are all animals at the end of the day.

I am therefore reaching out to the current CEO of YouTube; Neal Mohan. Please remove these awful videos from the platform and ban animal cruelty from the site once and for all. I am also reaching out to the CEO of Pets at Home; Lyssa McGowan and of Pets Corner; Dean Richmond. Because in the UK these are the main places to buy live feed such as insects and even baby chicks to be eaten alive. Let’s stop this monstrosity and bring this level of infanticide to an end.