You may have heard that there is a new meme on the Internet and it concerns Taylor Swift’s song August. The song is currently trending and I guess people know that she likes cats and lives with them so they are grabbing their cat under the armpits and spinning around while capturing the “fun” with their video cameras. The result is that the cats are either a bit nonplussed or they are anxious or even frightened.
Note: ‘meme’ definition: “an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.”
And lots of Taylor Swift fans are doing this. The videos appear to be mainly on TikTok which has a record by the way of presenting videos which are dubious in terms of animal welfare.
These Taylor Swift meme videos are also dubious in terms of animal welfare. I’m not saying that it is massively bad to do this but it’s not great in terms of cat caregiving is it?
The charity Cats Protection have publicly complained about it and asked people to stop doing it. They say that it goes against decent cat caregiving which it certainly does.
In fact, Cats Protection, Central Behaviour Officer Daniel Warren-Cummings said that, “Cats in particular will experience extreme stress by being swung or spun around and it could even cause them physical harm.”
And they are correct in saying that the videos show cats looking frightened and distressed. Disappointingly a lot of the comments on the videos don’t pick up on this problem. Some people do criticise the videos in comments but a lot of people think it’s cute and funny and I presume these people are cat lovers.
The problem, as usual, is that people with TikTok accounts are desperate to create content. They are desperate for ideas to create exciting content so that they can attract viewers and improve their viewing numbers. That desire is stronger than the desire to look after their cat properly. There are so many funny cat videos on the Internet, which are popular, but which indicate that the cat is stressed. It’s boring to keep going over this but people shouldn’t be making videos which rely upon their cat being stressed or worse.
We can’t blame Taylor Swift but I think that she should step in and make a public statement about it in a polite way and ask her fans to stop doing it.
Here is another video of a kitten being spun around. The kitten does not look too anxious but it is not a good look, is it?
I hate these stupid tiktok challenges people do to their pets! I once had a Siamese named Ling who loved to be spun around in my office chair. She would pester you until you did it. And when you stopped she’d sit there with her eyes wobbling and then ask you to do it again! She actually liked it and she did it till almost the day she died at 16. 🙂
I hate these stupid memes as well. Humankind can be a little idiotic and they follow each other mindlessly.