Media loves to dress animals in clothes, put them at tiny tables, or narrate "sarcastic" inner monologues. While this is often harmless fun, it becomes dangerous when it masks neglect. For example, a "sad" dog video with melancholy music might actually be a dog suffering from separation anxiety. Rewarding that content encourages creators to induce negative emotions for views.
Long before Netflix documentaries, animals were physical performers. Traveling circuses presented "educated" horses, performing elephants, and dancing bears. These acts relied on dominance and fear—techniques that are now widely condemned but were once standard. Popular media of the day (newspapers, early newsreels) romanticized these animals as "geniuses" or "monsters," stripping them of their natural behaviors.
Even mainstream mega-creators have stumbled. In early 2023, YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) published a video featuring a "real life Squid Game," which included a scene with a live octopus. This ignited a firestorm. While some cultures consume raw octopus, the context of entertainment —treating the animal as a prop for a game—was criticized as grotesque. The backlash was swift, showing that the audience is now more literate than ever about animal sentience. Part III: The Ethics Primer – Entertainment vs. Exploitation How do we differentiate between a harmless funny cat video and a case of digital animal abuse? Here is a four-point ethical framework for consuming animal entertainment content.