A YouTuber in India has been arrested after tying helium balloons to his dog in an attempt to make it fly for a YouTube video, according to a BBC report.
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Indian police arrested the YouTuber, who goes by the name Gaurav Sharma, after receiving complaints from People for Animals, an animal welfare organization.
The Times Of India reported that Gaurav first uploaded the video on May 21 with the title “Flying Dollar (that’s the dog’s name) with helium gas balloons.”.
The video shows Gaurav and a friend at a park, trying to see if the dog would fly while they had helium balloons tied to his body. They then wanted to test if the helium balloons could lift the dog higher to the balcony of a building near the park.
After viewers of the video reacted badly, Gaurav removed the video and issued an apology saying that he had "taken all safety precautions" while filming the video with his dog.
Gaurav also urged others not to repeat the actions shown in his video, adding that he was influenced by other YouTubers who have uploaded similar videos, according to the Times of India.
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An Indian Express report said Gaurav was released after his arrest, as it was an “acceptable violation.” He told police he was a YouTuber who created the video solely for his channel, which currently has more than four million subscribers.
He has also posted many other videos with his dog, Dollar, depicting experiences such as taking the dog to the hospital in an emergency and what happened when he escaped.
Gaurav has created an Instagram for his dog where he has amassed over 200,000 followers. The latest post on the page has received a lot of negative comments from some users who accused Gaurav of animal cruelty after the helium balloon video went viral.
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A three-month investigation by the charity Lady Freethinker claimed to have identified over 2,000 videos by YouTubers where animals were tortured for entertainment purposes, according to a Guardian report published in 2020.
The charity urged the YouTube platform to remove all videos containing violent behavior against animals and to hold the channels involved accountable.
Information source: thestar.com.my
