Brooke Houts Dog Abuse Controversy

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Overview

Brooke Houts Dog Abuse Controversy refers to an online backlash directed toward YouTuber Brooke Houts after footage of her appearing to slap and spit on her pet dog was uploaded to YouTube in early August 2019.

Background

On August 5th, 2019, Houts uploaded a video titled "Plastic Wrap Prank On My Doberman!," which contained footage in which she can be seen slapping and spitting on her pet Doberman Pinscher. The video was subsequently removed but was reuploaded by YouTuber WIZZ (shown below). Within 72 hours, the reupload accumulated more than 637,000 views and 5,100 comments.

Developments

Houts' Response

On August 6th, 2019, Houts tweeted a statement apologizing for the leaked footage, claiming "things in my outside life have been less than exceptional" (shown below). Within 48 hours, the tweet gained over 12,500 likes and 1,400 retweets.

To everyone who has been commenting on my social media as of recently: pic.twitter.com/gnxUbfVHdf
— b (@brookehouts) August 7, 2019

On Twitter

On August 7th, 2019, YouTuber Shoe0nhead tweeted that Houts had mistakenly posted the unedited footage to YouTube in which she can be seen abusing her dog (shown below). Shortly after, Keemstar retweeted^[2] shoe0nhead's clip from the unedited video.

context: she apparently accidentally uploaded the unedited footage to her channel & luckily someone caught it before she deleted it. the woman uses this dog for clicks and straight up beats it behind the scenes pic.twitter.com/kn3EbxIbdY
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) August 7, 2019

Also that same day, Logan Paul posted a thread about the video, referring to the abuse as "remarkably grotesque" (shown below).

Logan Paul @LoganPaul i try my best to avoid slamming people on twitter because i know what it's like to be on the receiving end (and rightfully so), but this video of that girl hitting & spitting on her dog is remarkably grotesque, and irks me for many reasons: 2:20 PM Aug 7, 2019 Twitter for iPhone

LAPD Investigation

On August 7th, The Verge^[1] published an article reporting that the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating Houts over the abuse accusations, which included a statement from an LAPD media representative revealing that the Animal Cruelty Task Force "received numerous complaints about the video." That day, Ebaum's World^[3] published an article titled "LAPD Open Investigation After YouTuber Brooke Houts Hits and Spits On Her Dog."

LAPD Conclusion

On September 3rd, 2019, BuzzFeed News^[4] confirmed that the LAPD investigation was closed after the "Animal Cruelty Task force determined 'there was no crime' committed against her Doberman." The LAPD spokesperson told BuzzFeed that "Animal Task Force looked into the matter -- obviously they saw the video the public had seen. They determined it didn't rise to the level of animal cruelty."

That day various Twitter users voiced their frustration over the outcome of the investivgation. Twitter user @slevanasgaming^[5] tweeted that they were "so fucking sick of the god damn corruption in news stories and people getting away" (shown below, left) while Twitter user @VCWTheHanShow^[6] called the whole ordeal "corrupt" (shown below, right).