This may seem innocuous to many people. It may seem highly amusing to a lot of people. None of the comments on YouTube attempt to refer to the morality of what is going on. Perhaps I’m being overly serious? Perhaps I’m being a grumpy old, stupid man – I don’t know. All I know is that if I had a cat and a dog to look after I would not dress my dog up in a zebra mask in order to frighten my cat because it is unfair on the cat; firstly. Secondly it may just damage the relationship between the cat and the dog. This cat and this dog may have an excellent relationship for all I know. The cat might now, at least for a while, be uncertain about his dog companion.
The owner of the dog and cat set the video up to put it onto YouTube to perhaps make a few pounds or dollars. They are amused by what is going on because you can hear them giggling. But they seem to have totally forgotten that they are making their cat frightened.
I have to assume that both the cat and dog are looked after by the people who made the video. Even if they are not then the video makers set the whole thing up at the expense of the cat’s emotions. The dog seems to be okay wearing the mask. Although that in itself is not a brilliant idea.
Do you think it is amusing to frighten your cat? I don’t see how any decent cat caretaker/guardian cat find this amusing. They would not do it. It is about being sensitive to the cat’s emotions. Good cat caretakers promote a warm and reassuring environment for their cat. This is important.
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People who post vids on You Tube like this are idiots. I’ve never done that to my cats. Seeing a terrified animal is not amusing to me. Some people have weird ideas about what cute and funny really is.