PETA is being accused of producing a horrifying fake video showing a cat being abused. The animal rights group has attempted to publish the video hoping for it to go viral.
Using new-age digital technologies, PETA produced a rather convincing video of a suffering cat, trying to convince global media organisations to knowingly publish the fake footage.
The video created with computer-generated imagery features a man demanding his cat do tricks. The fake animal is entirely computer-generated.
The man commands it to sit on its hind legs and jump between stools. He later slaps the cat and makes it run away in fear.
PETA planned to anonymously release the footage of an animal abuse early next week via Youtube.
The charity also reached out to various media outlets, trying to convince them to publish the video without mentioning that it’s fake.
PETA also produced a behind-the –scenes video, in which the organisations senior communications president Lisa Lange talked about the video being fake.
In her email to global media companies Ms Lange wrote: “What we’d like to do is have [you] debut this video of a cat, created with computer-generated imagery (CGI), being abused, which will have been planted on YouTube anonymously by the ad agency who created it for PETA. Your posting of the provocative piece would simply be to acknowledge that it’s in circulation – not to make any claims about its authenticity. “
After the fake video got exposed, PETA attempted to cover itself by saying that it was only produced in an effort to draw attention to the issue of animal abuse in zoos, circuses, films, etc.
It’s not the first time PETA has used misinformation tactics to get attention. In its previous ads it compared livestock with rape victims, holocaust to meat industry, and female rape victims to cows.
