A vet popular on TikTok has urged social media users to avoid taking part in a potentially dangerous and unfunny trend involving cats.
UK-based veterinarian Ben the Vet has some 209,000 followers on TikTok and more than five million likes on his videos, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
Last week, Ben published a video from another TikTok post, showing someone spinning their cat around.
The video, which is among his many videos focusing on animal welfare topics, was accompanied by a short caption: “Leave the cats on the ground people.”
The footage, as Ben says, has more than four million views.
In his video, Ben shared his thoughts on the trend and asked: “Is that funny? Am I not getting why it is so entertaining? It is really?”
He continued: “Is it [funny] watching an unhappy cat be spun around, [who is quite clearly, not very happy with the situation?”
Ben closed his video saying: “I'm all for funny cat videos, but not when the cat is the sort of losing party.”
People in the comments hit out at the original clip, with one saying: “THANK YOU. People stay stressing their animals out for views.”
Another person said: “People often seem to think that harassing their cats is funny... hate it.”
One more commented on the trend, saying: “I think it’s cute sometimes, but most cats and dogs do not enjoy this trend. Most viral videos feature uncomfortable animals, since I have worked in vet med I now realize this...”
According to animal welfarists, videos in which people spin around their pets - including cats, dogs and rabbits - are dangerous for a number of reasons.
As well as potentially causing nausea and vomiting, spinning animals around, particularly when holding them by the front legs, puts lots of pressure on their shoulders and legs.
In addition, when the animals squirm while being spun around, this can cause damage to their spines.
People took to the comments section of the video to share their own thoughts on the topic - and appeared to mainly agree with the veterinarian.
