Statement: ‘Cat Tricks’ Video in Which ‘Kitty’ Is Beaten Has Surprise Ending That Attacks Circus Cruelty

For Immediate Release:
June 7, 2017

It’s not often that there is so much buzz about a PETA video that hasn’t even been released to the public yet but here’s the story on this one https://youtu.be/VU3dWOlgd7Q.

PETA’s video depicting a CGI “cat” grew out of this simple question: What would it look like if someone did to beloved cat companions what circus trainers do to tigers? It would clearly and ironically illustrate that tigers who are whipped, screamed at and abused are really no different from the cats who share our homes and lives. An outside ad agency created a hyperbolic parody of circus and Hollywood training. The agency’s idea was to launch the campaign by releasing the “abuse” video first and then releasing a second video to create a serial narrative with a surprise ending. We knew the ad agency’s PR company was looking for a partner to promote the videos, with the goal of getting people to be outraged about what was being done to a fake cat. The second video would reveal that this parody of abuse is actually meted out to big cats in the circus and in movies. The PR company approached Mashable and shared their idea. Mashable didn’t like it. When we heard yesterday afternoon that Mashable wasn’t interested, we regrouped and decided to launch it ourselves in a single video as a clearly-labelled parody so that there would be no confusion. We decided this because of the concerns Mashable raised. We were taken aback last night by Mashable’s story and frankly surprised that Mashable didn’t wait for our response, particularly as the video had not even been publicly released.