People So Disconnected from Reality, They Don’t Realize that Viral Animal Video They Shared Is Animal Abuse

Photos and pictures of animals doing “cute” things make up a large portion of the mindless crap people share with each other on the Internet. What’s sad about that besides the fact that it is a colossal waste of time is that people don’t seem to realize that many of the videos they are sharing are actually not “cute” but showing animals in distressed situations or forcibly posed in such a way to look “cute” or “funny” that is akin to abuse.

Take this crab for example:

Someone jammed a knife into this crab’s claw, one he likely cannot let go of because it’s jammed in there, and nicknamed him “gangster crab” then stuck a camera in his face and provoked him so he’d flail his claw back and forth with the knife in it. The video has over 2 million views.

While the majority of comments on the video are about stupid pop culture references, the crab they’re busy laughing it up at is probably thinking he’s about to die.

Here’s another example where experts agree a photographer put a frog on a beetle and called him a cowboy:

That frog is likely making that face because he’s in distress. This was reported on in the Daily Mail with the caption “Giddy up! Photographer Hendy Mp captured this daring frog hop a ride on a beetle and it even stuck its front leg in the air cowboy-style.”

As the Herpetological Society of Ireland noted, “While these photos would be very amusing if the photographer had stumbled across such incidents, the simple fact of the matter is that these animals do not engage in these behaviours naturally; These photos have almost certainly been staged, and have almost certainly resulted in the animal being distressed, injured, or worse.”

Mashable got called out by a marine biologist and an aquairum for posting this animated gif of someone scaring the crap out of an otter on Twitter:

TFW when someone wakes you up before your alarm clock http://t.co/wn1qnQ0iNg pic.twitter.com/fHZhKpnXJd

— Mashable (@mashable) October 5, 2015

.@mashable Please don’t refer to illegal wildlife harassment as “hilarious” or “adorable.” @_LLRobertson @rlytle @timchester @LanceUlanoff

— David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) October 5, 2015

@mashable @WhySharksMatter is on point. Sea otters have it tough out there: http://t.co/o5n8IRAecY — Monterey Aquarium (@MontereyAq) October 5, 2015

The saddest part is how disconnected humanity has become from nature that people just go, “Aww, that’s so cute” or “that’s hilarious” and don’t even realize the viral video they’re sharing on Facebook is probably suffering and animal abuse.