YouTube star Vitaly Zdorovetskiy posted the viral video on social media
Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, a Russian-American YouTube star with nearly 10 million subscribers, is facing backlash for a viral video he posted on Twitter and Instagram two days ago. The clip shows a monkey appearing to smoke marijuana and passing out. It's unclear whether Mr Zdorovetskiy, better known by his YouTube username VitalyzdTv, filmed the video or initiated the drug use. In the comments thread on both social media platforms, hundreds of people tagged various animal rights organisations, including PETA, which has taken notice of the viral video.
The video shows the small monkey seated on a man's lap. The animal takes a few puffs before jumping from the man's lap and walking away. The man who is filming the bizarre scene on his mobile phone laughs loudly. The edited video then shows the monkey snacking on potato chips. Then, the monkey - wearing a t-shirt - appears to be passed out. The man filming shakes the primate awake and offers another puff.
Since June 9, the video has been viewed over 94,000 times on Twitter and has been retweeted over 1,200 times. On Instagram, it's racked up over 7.7 lakh views, 1.1 lakh 'likes' and 11,000 comments.
"Pretty shameful and disgusting to do, let alone post," writes one person on Instagram. "Am I the only one who thinks that this goes too far?" wonders another.
"This is disgusting, I can't believe people are actually finding this funny," comments a third.
Defending Mr Zdorovetskiy, one person writes, "Animals have been getting high just like us since the beginning of time! They eat fermented fruits, mushrooms and coca leaves. He didn't force the Chimp. So just mind your own business."
On Twitter, PETA writes it has passed the video on to their Cruelty Investigations Department.
In April, a woman in the United States rushed her
pet raccoon to the nearest fire station in the dead of the night to seek treatment for the animal, who had smoked too much marijuana. Unfortunately, officials couldn't do much about the raccoon's condition, except wait. The raccoon was forced to go home and sleep it off. It's unclear how the raccoon got high on weed.
In March,
an orangutan in Indonesia was filmed puffing on a cigarette butt that was flicked into its zoo enclosure by a visitor.Click for more
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